Science has solved the ketchup bottle problem

There are few first world problems worse than making a bacon roll, getting the ketchup and being unable to get the last of the sauce out of the bottle to complete your sarnie.

Shaking, thumping, karate chopping, running under hot water – nothing will get it out and no breakfast situation is more infuriating.

Thankfully, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a coating that makes the inside of bottles incredibly slippery. 

The Boston-based scientists created the film by coating the inside of a container with a rough surface, placing a thin layer over that and then adding a liquid that fills in the ridges to form a slippery surface so that red sauce just slides on out. 

According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe.

"The cool thing about it is that because the coating is a composite of solid and liquid, it can be tailored to the product. So for food, we make the coating out of food-based materials and so you can actually eat it."

The bottles should be available in the next few years and the technology can be used in other containers with annoyingly stubborn contents, like paint and toothpaste.

We’re honestly not sure where science has been lately, and how this wasn’t top of the inventions list.