Have you ever spent ten minutes in front of the sauce shelf at the supermarket without being able to choose? You are not alone (or lonely). Between jars of various types and sizes, fresh sauces and long-life products, the offer is vast and not all are the same. Fortunately, Altroconsumo did the dirty work for us, analyzing over 280 ready-made sauces of different types (tomato, ragù, pesto, vegetables, etc.) purchased in 10 Italian supermarket chains and discount stores.
What did he discover? The first thing that catches the eye when looking at the “very good” products (score between 80 and 100) is that the tomato sauces dominate, often in an organic version or with certified raw materials (PGI, DOP). The overall winner with 88 points is the PGI tomato sauce from Pachino signed by Esselunga Top, a short supply chain product with controlled ingredients that surpasses even renowned national brands.
It is surprising, in a positive sense, to see that many discount and private label products (Conad, Carrefour Bio, Coop, Lidl Italiamo) compare very well with the big brands such as Barilla, Mutti and De Cecco. A sign that nutritional quality is not necessarily linked to price.
Another interesting fact is that no pesto appears among the “very good”. The presence of oil in large quantities, cheeses and often additives weighs on the nutritional profile of this category.
The best ready-made sauces
Below are all the ready-made sauces that have obtained a score of 80 and above and are therefore considered to be of very good quality:
How the test was conducted
The method used by Altroconsumo to evaluate ready-made sauces is complex. The nutritional evaluation weighs 55% of the total score and is based on the Nutri-score system, which takes into account saturated fats, sugars, salt, fiber and proteins for every 100 grams of product. Added to this is an analysis of additives (15%), with a distinction between those “acceptable” and those “to be avoided”, and an evaluation of the degree of industrial transformation (15%): the more ultra-processed ingredients a product contains, the more the score drops.
Sweeteners account for 10%, their presence is always evaluated negatively, in line with WHO recommendations. Finally, the size of the portion accounts for 5%, penalizing products with portions larger than the category average.
The result is a score from 0 to 100 which translates into five bands: from “very poor” (red) to “very good” (dark green).
