Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
Food · Pantry & Condiment · Food, Typed Supps
A quarter sugar by weight, and one of the better lycopene sources you will eat.
Stage by stage
- Small serve (The plate): A tablespoon is 15–20 g, which is why the per-100 g figures overstate the real contribution.
- Free sugar (Stomach): 21.5 g added sugar per 100 g — about 3.5 g in a tablespoon.
- Lycopene (Small intestine): Processing makes it more absorbable than raw tomato, but it needs dietary fat.
- Sodium (Circulation): 870 mg per 100 g; around 150 mg per tablespoon against a 2,000 mg daily target.
Timing
It arrives with a meal by definition, which is convenient — the lycopene needs the fat in that meal to be absorbed at all.
Time to effect
- 4–8 hrs: Lycopene appears in circulation after a fat-containing meal.
- Years: Sodium and free sugar contributions accrue only with habitual heavy use.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. May contain: Celery, Mustard, Sulphites. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Low-FODMAP, Gluten-free.
Satiety
Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.
Environmental footprint
2.1 kg CO2e and 370 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Tomatoes" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Mid — roughly £5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 104
- Protein: 1.3g
- Carbohydrate: 24.1g
- of which sugars: 23.7g
- Fibre: 1.3g
- Sodium: 870mg
Food vs. supplement
Lycopene is one of the better cautionary tales in supplement research: the diets rich in tomato products track with better outcomes, and the isolated compound in a capsule has not reproduced it. Whatever is happening appears to need the food.
Kitchen tip
Reduced-salt tomato sauce keeps all the lycopene and drops around 40% of the sodium. It is the cleanest swap on this shelf.
Common myth
“Fresh tomatoes are always better than processed.” In reality: Not for lycopene. Heating and concentrating break down the cell walls that trap it and convert it into a more absorbable form, so tomato sauce and paste deliver several times what raw tomato does. The trade is 21.5 g of added sugar and 870 mg of sodium per 100 g — real, but spread across tablespoon serves. Reduced-salt versions keep the good part.
Recipes that use it
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In the glossary
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