Sainsbury’s pasta sauces contain more salt than similar products from other supermarkets, according to research from Consensus Action on Salt and Health(Cash).
Cash surveyed 190 pasta sauce products. Both branded and supermarket own-label products from Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrison’s, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield and the Co-op were included in the research.
Overall the branded sauces, including Dolmio, Ragu, Jamie Oliver and Loyd Grossman averaged at 1.17g of salt per 100g, while the supermarket own-label products averaged at around 0.86g of salt per 100g, a quarter less than the branded products.
The largest range of salt content was seen in the tomato-based pasta sauces. The highest salt product found on the shelves was Jamie Oliver’s Spicy Olive and Garlic sauce with 3.0g of salt per 100g.
For half a 350g jar this works out as 5.3g, which is almost 90% of an adult’s recommended limit of 6g of salt per day in one serving, Weight Watchers’ Roasted Garlic pasta sauce contains just 0.1g of salt per 100g, a thirtieth of the salt in the Jamie Oliver sauce.
Sainsbury’s Puttanesca Pasta Sauce had the highest salt content in a supermarket own brand sauce. It contains 2.0g of salt per 100g. The Co-operative Tomato & Olive Pasta Sauce contains 0.7g of salt per 100g, over four times lower than the Jamie Oliver sauce and almost three times lower than the Sainsbury’s sauce. Asda’s Good For You Bolognese sauce was found to contain just 0.3g of salt per 100g
