Three companies own most of your 4th of July cookout — Clorox owns the charcoal, McCormick owns Stubb's, Kraft Heinz owns the ketchup and hot dogs. And the best-selling BBQ sauce belongs to a fourth. Here's who cashes your cookout check, and 6 Black-owned brands to buy instead.

A 4th of July cookout for ten now runs a record $73.82 (American Farm Bureau, 2026) — the highest since the survey began in 2016, with ground beef hitting an all-time high. So it's worth knowing exactly where that money lands before you spend it.

Flip the bottle over and read the parent company, not the story on the front. Kingsford charcoal and KC Masterpiece are Clorox brands. Grill Mates, Lawry's, French's, Frank's RedHot, Cattlemen's, and Stubb's Bar-B-Q — founded by Black pitmaster C.B. Stubblefield of Lubbock, Texas — all belong to McCormick, which bought Stubb's for about $100 million in 2015. Heinz, A.1., Bull's-Eye, Open Pit, and Oscar Mayer are Kraft Heinz, a company now splitting itself into two in a move expected to finish in 2026. And Sweet Baby Ray's, America's #1 BBQ sauce, was sold to Ken's Foods — the salad-dressing company — for around $30 million in 2005.

Watch the full documentary: youtu.be/1eIwrEXE5zk