In the past decade, major quick-serve chains have undergone multi-million–dollar kitchen renovations, deep-sixed those much-reviled heat lamps and utterly upended their operational cultures to deliver freshly made products and change perceptions that their food is anything other than top-quality. Many have spent millions more to advertise and promote these moves.

So how exactly is it, in this climate where quality is king, variety is all the rage, and freshness is more fashionable than ever before, that the condiments tossed in my bag at the drive-thru these days are still the same old blister packs of goo that chains have been doling out since I was a kid?

Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, ranch dressing … all satisfy certain basic needs and heighten the moisture content of whatever they accompany. But they’re not exciting. There’s something distinctly anticlimactic about unwrapping a fresh, delicious, piping-hot burger, burrito, or chicken sandwich made with first-quality ingredients only to discover that your sole option for adding a bit of personal pizzazz is a small, mass-produced foil envelope packed with standard-issue sauce.

Here are a few suggestions for making modern condiments a powerful point of difference for modern quick-serve chains:

Play the Health Card

Ketchup rated briefly as a vegetable during the first Reagan administration, but I’d bet the number of diners who have doused their fries for the purpose of enhancing their vitamin intake or combating cell-damaging free radicals in the bloodstream hovers somewhere near zero.

But in an age of so-called nutraceuticals and fortified foods, condiments might just represent a formidable new force for good nutrition and optimal health, particularly among aging baby boomers hungry for additions to their diets that require nothing as demanding as eating a plate of steamed vegetables at every meal.

Not only could chains offer standard condiments in low-sodium or low-fat varieties, they might also consider juicing up their existing dips and dollops with healthful additives ranging from vitamins and minerals to antioxidants, dietary fiber, or fruit-juice extracts. Delicious, creamy salad dressings can be made with yogurt bases that contain probiotics, or active bacterial cultures. Salsa, meanwhile—now the nation’s most popular condiment, by many reckonings—is a veritable vegetable garden of healthy selections: diced tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumber, vinegar, and herbs. The stuff lends itself to endless variations and varieties, all of which stand to substantially boost the nutritional content wherever they’re added.