I-Spy Hidden Sugar! The unsavoury truth of savoury sauces

Written by Catherine Saxelby on Wednesday, 20 April 2016.
Tagged: carbohydrates, carbs, food labels, health, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, nutrition, sugar

No video selected.

Tomato, barbecue, chilli, mustard, horseradish. We all love a slurp of sauce and it’s so easy with store-bought brands as you just squeeeeeeze or plop it on your food. Sauces add that appetising mix of tangy and sweet to steaks, sausages, ribs and heaps of other savoury foods.

What we often don’t realise is that they contain a fair whack of added sugar. Do you know how much hidden sugar there is in your favourite sauce?

Here’s how much hidden sugar is in your tomato, barbecue and sweet chilli sauces

Sauce labels We did an inventory of three popular sauces – tomato, barbecue and sweet chilli – for their added sugar and sodium, a measure of salt (salt is sodium chloride).

Sauce	Sugar position in Ingredient List	% sugars	Sodium - mg/ 100 mL
Tomato sauces
Average		23	878
Range		16 - 29	110- 1350
Fountain Tomato Sauce 2 L	2nd	22	846
MasterFoods Squeezy Tomato Sauce	2nd	21	744
Rosella Squeezy Tomato Sauce 500 mL	2nd	16	1180
Fountain Tomato Sauce Glass Bottle 600 mL	2nd	28	930
MasterFoods Squeezy Salt Reduced Tomato Sauce 500 mL	2nd	18	547
Heinz Tomato Ketchup 1 L	2nd	26	1350
Dick Smith Squeezy Tomato Sauce 500 mL	2nd	24	626
Outback Spirit Tomato Sauce 245 mL	3rd	19	936
Three Threes Tomato Sauce 275 mL	3rd	23	1205
MasterFoods Squeezy Australian Grown Tomato Sauce 500 mL	2nd	29	844
Pops Tomato Sauce Dispenser Pack 600 mL	2nd	20	110
Heinz Organic Tomato Ketchup 500 mL	2nd	25	1220
Barbecue sauces
Average		37	852
Range		23 - 54	473 - 1102
MasterFoods Squeezy BBQ Sauce 500 mL	2nd	54	1051
Outback Spirit BBQ Sauce 245 mL	2nd	23	473
MasterFoods Squeezy Smokey BBQ Sauce 500 mL	2nd	43	836
ETA Original BBQ Sauce 375 mL	2nd	46	1102
MasterFoods Squeezy Reduced Salt BBQ Sauce	2nd	38	683
McCormick Grill Mates Vintage Smokehouse BBQ Sauce 500 mL	2nd	28	868
McCormick Grill Mates Brown Sugar Bourbon BBQ Sauce 500 mL	2nd	29	950
Sweet chiili sauces
Average		56	1202
Range		42 - 69	183 - 1930
Fountain Sweet Chilli Sauce 250 mL	1st	42	1085
Trident Sweet Chilli Sauce 285 mL	1st	69	1650
Trident Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce 730 mL	1st	69	1650
Ramasa Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce 250 mL	1st	43	183
Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce 730 mL	1st	61	1930
Ayam Sweet Chilli Sauce 435 mL	1st	61	715

Footnote: tomato and BBQ sauces contain both natural sugars from tomatoes as well as added sugar so the % sugars figure is the total. However the added sugar is much more than the naturally-occurring in these sauces.

Don’t be fooled by Health Haloes

Many sauces carry fat-free, gluten-free, MSG free, preservative free and other health halo claims. This doesn’t mean they’re healthy. Many are still high in sugar and salt. Take Heinz’s Organic Tomato Ketchup! Yes, all the ingredients are ‘organic’ including the added sugar BUT sugars make up 25 per cent of the sauce and it has a hefty 1220 mg of sodium per 100 mL.

So what does it all mean?

Sweet chilli sauce is, hands-down, the sauce with the highest sugar content. For many brands like Master Foods’ range of chilli sauces, sugar is the second ingredient after water! For Ayam, Mae Ploy, Trident, Coles, and Fountain Sweet Chilli Sauces and for the Ramasa Thai Sweet Chilli sauce and the Outback Spirit, Kakadu Plum Chilli Sauce, sugar or sugar syrup is the number one ingredient!

Some manufacturers are addressing the problem of added sugar and high sodium levels in their sauces. So when you buy your next bottle of sauce, try these two instead:

1. Fountain 'No added Sugar' Tomato and Barbecue sauces

No added sugar
25% less added salt
With Natvia Natural Sweetener

2. Ayam Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce Light

This has no sugar and uses the sweeteners 951 (Aspartame) and 950 instead (Acesulphame Potassium). However, it’s salt level is still relatively high at 1555 mg per 100 g.

The bottom line

Again I’m going to repeat my two nutrition mantras – moderation in all things and read the label! A little chilli, barbecue or tomato sauce occasionally won’t kill you but consuming them in large quantities will rack up the kilojoules/Calories and increase your sodium (salt) load. Choose the lowest salt and sugar levels you can find and then enjoy!

Credit: Thank you to student dietitian Marthury Jeyalingam for help in compiling the sauce figures.