What else is in a jar of tomato sauce besides tomatoes?

Tomato sauce is a very popular product. It's good for a quick stir-fry, for topping macaroni that we don't want to eat plain (i.e., plain), and for any other dish we want to add flavor to. The food industry knows this; we have a lot of it, which is why they produce it in all types, sizes, formats, and flavors. If you don't believe me, just look at the shelves of your usual supermarket: jars of tomato sauce are lined up. Which one do we choose? Without looking at it too closely, we focus on the price that best suits our budget, and probably also on what's advertised with the right words. home either craftsmanThis leads us to believe it will be the best option. However, according to registered dietitian Anna Grífols, we should carefully read the ingredients. Otherwise, we could end up taking home a jar of tomato sauce that has everything but very little of the main ingredient: tomato.

To begin with, in the list of ingredients, which are written from highest to lowest quantity, the first ingredient should be tomato. Only tomato. If it says concentrated tomato sauce, it means it contains very little, as it comes from tomatoes cooked for hours to concentrate them and then diluted with water. "It's how the food industry reduces production costs," says Anna Grífols. The same tomato can fill more jars if it's made into a concentrate, that is, if it's diluted with water. "If for some reason we can only buy one jar of concentrated tomato sauce, the advice is to choose one with a small percentage; if possible, 25% or less," recommends the registered dietitian.

Olive oil, always preferred

Next, after the tomatoes, we should find olive oil. "Olive oil is always preferable because it oxidizes at high temperatures, 180°C, something that doesn't happen with other vegetable oils, such as sunflower oil," Grífols continues. If instead of olive oil we find sunflower or canola oil, we're taking a step down in quality. And thirdly, we should find salt and spices. Ideally, the spices should be listed so we can keep them in mind if we ever want to make it at home. So, the ideal jar of tomato sauce should have these ingredients: tomatoes, olive oil, salt, and spices, but the reality is quite different. Many other ingredients are added, such as sugar, which is a tomato acidity regulator, but when added in considerable quantities, it transforms the sauce into something completely different. And, in turn, "it can make us adjust the amount of sugar we allow ourselves to consume daily." Along with sugar, there's another undesirable ingredient: modified wheat starch. And at this point, we must pause. "The industry uses it, modified wheat starch, to thicken tomatoes," says Grífols, who adds that "if we use a tomato sauce with starches to eat a pasta dish, it turns out we're ingesting more carbohydrates than we think we're getting from the pasta; there are many more, because that tomato sauce also contains them."

The conclusion of all this? I wish we could always do it at home. We take a pan, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, grate tomatoes, and add a pinch of salt and any spices we like, such as oregano. If we cook it over low heat, we sauté it. If we cook it quickly, over high heat, we fry it. It all depends on what we want: sautéed or fried. I know you'll tell me that there are no tomatoes in January, that they're a summer fruit and, with climate change, an autumn fruit. True. This coming summer we'll be able to make them. And we store it in glass jars, so we have enough for the whole year. It might take us less time to do that than to choose the right jar of tomato sauce at the supermarket.