Not having tomato sauce is a fast food fanatic's nightmare, and it has come true in Argentina - McDonald's ran out, and company officials publicly apologised to customers.
The shortage was attributed not to poor planning or unexpected demand but to Argentina's many barriers to curb imports.
"The lack of ketchup packets is temporary," a source close to McDonald's said, adding that the problem will be fixed next week.
McDonald's knows import barriers in Argentina all too well.
For close to 30 years, the company has cultivated a local supply network that includes meat, vegetables, bread, potatoes, cups and packaging materials.
Many of those local products are exported to other McDonald's restaurants across South America and as far as Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and North America.
But not tomato sauce, which is one of the few products that McDonald's imports into Argentina, in this case, from neighbouring Chile.
The curtailed sauce joined a cavalcade of public complaints over import policies.
A few months earlier, coffee chain Starbuck's had difficulties importings its trademarked paper cups.
The government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner imposes restrictions on the import of industrial inputs and finished goods in an effort to slow the exit of US dollars from the local economy.
"The problem with delays in import permits runs across the board," Diego Perez Santiesteban, president of Argentina's Importers' Chamber (CARI) said.
"It affects all branches of industry and importers of consumer goods, reactants for medical use and machine parts, among others."
Santiesteban noted that new Trade Department authorities are working "with more technical guidelines" after the December departure of controversial former trade secretary Guillermo Moreno.
"But so many things had been delayed that many companies cannot replenish their stocks," he said.
Every import permit is reviewed and approved manually, one by one.
"It is gradually becoming more flexible, but it remains too slow," Santiesteban warned.
Economist Dante Sica, who leads the consultancy company Abeceb, identified "shortages in every sector".
"Industry does not get as bad as to halt the production line, but sometimes it is within an hour, or even half an hour, of having to do that," he said.
