Tomato sauce in the eco-test: The well-known organic brand rattles through

Tomato Sauce in Eco Taste
Well-known organic brands rattle through

7/21/2022 7:02 am

Pasta with tomato sauce is quick to make, especially if you don’t need to make the sauce separately. But not all finished products are harmless, as Sco-Test shows. One well-known organic brand in particular has a huge mold problem.

Tastes are different. This applies to tomato sauce as well, but there are some things you still don’t want on your plate. These include artificial flavors and mold toxins. In addition, there should be a clear indication of the origin of the tomato on the packaging.

However, this isn’t always the case, as evidenced by a test conducted by Sco-Test of 21 popular tomato sauces. Although 11 of them got good or very good test results, two failed mercilessly. These are popular organic brands.

Organic products with mold problems

Testers found mold toxins in four tomato sauces tested, including the Gut and Giger tomato sauce from Napoli. It contains alternariol, which according to cell studies has a mutagenic effect. So the overall rating is only “adequate”. In addition, tenuazonic acid, which is suspected to have organ-damaging effects, was found in sauces from DM, Rossmann, and Alnatura. Testers also detected twice the amount of tenuazonic acid allowed in the European Union in the tomato sauce from Elnatura. Therefore, the organic product failed with a bang and received the overall grade “inadequate”.

There were other criteria from testers that ensured that certain tomato sauces received good or bad ratings. These included the salt content, flavor, advertising and origin of the tomatoes used. Of the products tested, 14 contained a lot of salt, including Maggi and Cucina Nobel sauces. The Maggi Tomato Sauce performed just as poorly in the taste test, with testers finding it too sweet and too thyme-heavy. Overall, this was enough only to be “satisfactory” in testing.

The sauces of Barilla Pomodoro and Oro di Parma Sugo Tomato Sauce Herbs used artificial flavors, which led to a reduction in the overall rating. Eco-testers also had a problem with questionable advertising promises from Unilever (Knorr) and Mars (Miracoli). For example, manufacturers advertise with the inscription “without artificial dyes”, although these are also not allowed in tomato sauce. In addition, the test more closely examined the transparency of supply chains. Where do used tomatoes come from? Barilla and Unilever (Knorr) kept a low profile at this point, which had a negative impact on test results.

Which tomato sauce do you recommend?

However, there are some sauces that have passed the test with flying colors. The three test winners with the grade “Very Good” include the notably low-salt tomato sauce La Selva Pomodoro al Basilico (La Selva) for 2.22 Euros and Rapunzel Tuscany Tomato Sauce (Rapunzel) for 2.34 Euros.

Some very cheap tomato sauces from Discounter were also rated. Two examples are Combino Tomato Sauce Basil (Liddle) for 0.75 Euro and Mondo Italiano Pasta Sauce Napoli (Nato) for 0.79 Euro. However, both sauces have a high salt content. So if you’re looking to eat a very low-salt diet, you’re probably better served with tomato sauce from La Selva—or just cook your own.