A&W makes switch to French's ketchup in Canada

Fast-food chain A&W is the latest French's ketchup fan to show support for the condiment made with Canadian-grown tomatoes.

A&W announced on Tuesday that it will start using French's Tomato Ketchup and Classic Yellow Mustard in its 850 Canadian locations.

The move comes as French's continues to receive plenty of love from Canadian consumers following a viral Facebook post by an Ontario man praising the company's decision to make its ketchup with tomatoes grown in southwestern Ontario.

Brian Fernandez posted a photo of a French's ketchup bottle on his Facebook page on Feb. 23, saying that he and his family bought a bottle and "absolutely love it." He noted that the ketchup is made with tomatoes grown in Leamington, Ont. and part of the tomato production is based in a local plant that once belonged to Heinz.

Heinz closed the plant in 2014, and approximately 705 jobs were lost as a result.

The post went viral, being shared more than 130,000 times, and caught the attention of grocery chains, consumers and politicians.

But A&W said that it's been "collaborating" with French's for more than six months.

"A&W is proud to announce that it will be the first national restaurant to serve French’s Tomato Ketchup and Classic Yellow Mustard in all of its restaurants across Canada," the company said in a statement, noting that both products are made with "100 per cent Canadian tomatoes and 100 per cent Canadian mustard seeds."

Earlier this month, grocery chain Loblaw reversed its decision to take French's ketchup off its shelves after the company was criticized for dropping the product.

A leaked internal memo sent to some Loblaw employees said the grocery chain decided to stop stocking French's ketchup because it was "cannibalizing" sales of its in-house President's Choice variety.  However, the company said that it dropped the product because of low sales and demand, and it is now working with French's to re-stock the ketchup.

A member of the Ontario legislature has also called for French's ketchup to be served in the cafeteria of Queen's Park instead of Heinz ketchup.

With files from The Canadian Press