Sauce: most of the evidence is about what gets dissolved into it

Sauce is a shelf, and this page holds 48 USDA records to prove it, from salsa to dry alfredo mix. The strongest evidence in the whole category is about something added to sauce rather than about sauce itself. Pooling 16 randomised trials, all of them run in China inside one national fortification programme and among people already short of iron, iron-fortified soy sauce cut the odds of anaemia to 0.25 against unfortified sauce, 95 percent confidence interval 0.19 to 0.35. Haemoglobin rose by 8.81 g/L in the 12 trials that measured it. Those are odds in a place where anaemia was common, and they say nothing about a shopper whose soy sauce carries no added iron. The same pattern repeats in Cambodia, where 90 pregnant women given thiamine-fortified fish sauce for 6 months reached red cell thiamine of 282 nM against 193 nM on control sauce, a blood measure rather than a case of beriberi prevented. For everyone else the sauce question is sodium. The reference USDA record here carries 656 mg per 100 g, and the 48 records run from 25 mg to 7,851 mg, so the name on the jar tells you far less than the label does. The daily value that label compares against is 2,300 mg of sodium, not of salt, and salt is 39 percent sodium by weight, so the two numbers are not interchangeable. The FDA is careful about what that means. It says cutting sodium lowers blood pressure and its risks in many, though not all, people with high blood pressure, and in many though not all people whose blood pressure is normal, and it attaches no number to that.

The numbers, per 100 g

How much is actually in it

• Salt is 39 percent sodium by weight, so a figure for salt and a figure for sodium on the same sauce are not the same number. — general population, US food labelling Evidence E source
  39 percent sodium by weight in salt

What your body absorbs

• In 60 children given 3 mg of labelled zinc a day, iron-fortified soy sauce left zinc absorption unchanged against unfortified sauce. — 60 children in China, 20 per group, receiving NaFeEDTA-fortified, ferrous sulfate-fortified or unfortified soy sauce with 6 mg of iron (n = 60) Evidence B source
  No difference in fractional zinc absorption, P = 0.39, nor in total zinc absorption, P = 0.59, across the three sauces
• Turning tomatoes into sauce raised plasma and urinary naringenin glucuronide above what raw tomatoes gave, across the 11 phenolic metabolites traced in urine, and the grinding and heating mattered more than adding oil. — adults in a randomised crossover trial, single doses of raw tomato or tomato sauce made with or without refined olive oil Evidence B source
  Significantly higher plasma concentration and urinary excretion of naringenin glucuronide after sauce than after raw tomato, sizes not given in the abstract

What cooking and storage change

• In 40 healthy adults, a single dose of tomato in any form lowered total cholesterol and triglycerides within 6 hours, and the sauce cooked with olive oil moved inflammation markers the most. — 40 healthy adults aged around 28, crossover, 7.0 g/kg raw tomato or 3.5 g/kg tomato sauce with or without refined olive oil on four separate days (n = 40) Evidence B source
  Falls in total cholesterol, triglycerides and several inflammatory markers and a rise in HDL and IL-10 at 6 hours, with the largest changes in IL-6, VCAM-1, LFA-1 and CD36 after the olive oil sauce

What it does to your health

• Pooling 16 randomised trials, iron-fortified soy sauce cut the odds of anaemia to 0.25 against unfortified soy sauce and raised haemoglobin by 8.81 g/L. — Chinese populations at risk of iron deficiency in 16 randomised trials, 12 of which reported haemoglobin (n = 16 trials) Evidence A source
  Pooled odds ratio 0.25, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.35 for anaemia, and weighted mean difference 8.81 g/L, 95% CI 5.96 to 11.67 for haemoglobin, odds rather than risk
• Pooling 4 cohorts and 564,748 adults, people who regularly ate spicy food including chilli sauce had a 12% lower risk of death from any cause. — 564,748 adults aged 18 and over from the United States, China, Italy and Iran, median follow-up 9.7 years (n = 564748) Evidence C source
  Pooled hazard or relative risk 0.88 for all-cause mortality, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.90, and 0.82, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.91 for cardiac death
• In 98 adults with fatty liver disease, 12 weeks of a carotenoid-rich tomato sauce cut the liver fat score by 33 dB/m against 12 dB/m for ordinary tomato sauce. — 98 adults aged 30 to 75 with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in Catanzaro, Italy, 12 weeks (n = 98) Evidence B source
  CAP score change -33 ± 44 dB/m against -12 ± 38 dB/m, P = 0.014

Safety, limits and interactions

• The FDA holds that cutting sodium lowers blood pressure and its risks in many, though not all, people with high blood pressure, and in many people with normal blood pressure too. — US adults, both hypertensive and normotensive Evidence E source
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• Mustard hides in condiments and sauces and is not a labelled major allergen in the United States, and a 23-month-old went into anaphylaxis from it alone. — one 23-month-old boy with existing IgE-mediated egg allergy (n = 1) Evidence D source
  Anaphylaxis within minutes of isolated mustard exposure, 15 mm wheal and 25 mm flare on skin prick testing, resolved after intramuscular epinephrine
• An 85-year-old woman on warfarin saw her INR rise two to three times after eating cranberry sauce on two separate occasions, while most pharmacokinetic studies find no such interaction. — one 85-year-old woman on long-term warfarin for atrial fibrillation (n = 1) Evidence D source
  Two to three fold INR rise after each of two cranberry sauce meals, falling again when three to four warfarin doses were withheld

What people believe that the data does not support

• The European Union register lists as non-authorised the claim that tomato pulp and sauces are an almost unique source of lycopene and should therefore always be used. — general EU population, claim submitted for lycopenes from tomato pulp and sauces Evidence E source
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• In 72 healthy adults split into 3 groups of 24, sniffing Japanese soy sauce for 20 seconds raised reach test scores, while water and a rose odour did not. — 72 healthy adults with normal olfaction, randomly assigned to sniff 5 ml of water, phenylethyl alcohol or Japanese soy sauce for 20 seconds (n = 72) Evidence B source
  Modified Functional Reach Test score rose after soy sauce only, P below 0.0001 within that group, with no change after water or phenylethyl alcohol

Who this works differently for

• In 4,267 Shanghai pregnancies, salt from cooking and soy sauce at 10 g a day or more carried 2.06 times the odds of a low birth weight baby against under 5 g a day. — 4,267 mother and child pairs followed in Shanghai since 2017, salt from household condiments weighed over a week (n = 4267) Evidence C source
  Odds ratio 2.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 4.13 for low birth weight at 10 g a day or more, and 1.69, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.47 for small for gestational age, odds rather than risk
• In 90 Cambodian pregnancies, 6 months of thiamine-fortified fish sauce raised red cell thiamine to 282 nM against 193 nM on control sauce. — 90 pregnant women in Prey Veng, Cambodia, randomised to control, 2 g/L or 8 g/L thiamine fish sauce, consumed freely for 6 months (n = 90) Evidence B source
  Erythrocyte thiamine diphosphate 282 nM, 95% CI 235 to 310, against 193 nM, 95% CI 164 to 222 on control, P < 0.05, with breast milk thiamine 20.7 against 14.4 µg/dL

What is still unknown

• Tomato sauce is the most eaten processed tomato product worldwide, and until this trial in 2015 almost nothing was known about how making it changes the phenolics the body takes up. — adults in a randomised crossover trial of raw tomato against tomato sauce Evidence B source
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The bottom line

Tomato sauce is the only kind anybody has studied as a food. A randomised crossover trial found that turning tomatoes into sauce raised plasma and urinary naringenin glucuronide above what raw tomatoes gave, with the grinding and heating mattering more than the added olive oil. That abstract reports no sample size, and one metabolite out of the 11 traced is not a health outcome. In 40 healthy adults aged around 28, a single tomato dose in any form lowered total cholesterol and triglycerides at 6 hours and raised HDL and IL-10, with the biggest movement in inflammation markers after the olive oil sauce. Those doses were scaled to body weight at 7.0 g of raw tomato per kg, well past an ordinary portion, and measured once, 6 hours after one meal. In 98 Italian adults aged 30 to 75 with fatty liver disease, 12 weeks of a carotenoid-enriched tomato sauce cut the liver fat score by 33 dB/m against 12 dB/m for ordinary tomato sauce, P = 0.014. The standard deviations were 44 and 38 dB/m, wider than the gap between the groups. That trial set added carotenoids against plain sauce, so it never tested sauce against nothing. One number on this page is not about sauce at all. Pooling 4 cohorts and 564,748 adults, people who regularly ate spicy food, a category that lumps chilli pepper, chilli sauce and chilli oil together, had a 12 percent lower risk of death from any cause, a pooled hazard or relative risk of 0.88, 95 percent confidence interval 0.86 to 0.90. Only 4 studies met the criteria and every one of them is observational, so that describes a habit and the people who keep it rather than anything a jar does. Two beliefs do not survive the data. The European Union register lists as non-authorised the claim that tomato pulp and sauces are an almost unique source of lycopene that should therefore always be used. That means the wording failed assessment. It does not mean lycopene does nothing. The second is soy sauce and balance. In 72 healthy adults, 24 per group, sniffing 5 ml of Japanese soy sauce for 20 seconds raised reach test scores while water and a rose odour did not, at P below 0.0001 inside that one group. Nobody in that trial ate anything, and the abstract sets no group against another and gives no effect size. Pregnancy is where the salt on this page has been measured directly. In 4,267 Shanghai pregnancies with household salt and soy sauce weighed over a week, 10 g a day or more carried 2.06 times the odds of a low birth weight baby against under 5 g a day, 95 percent confidence interval 1.02 to 4.13. That is observational, and households that salt heavily differ in other ways the study could not weigh. Two more cautions rest on one patient each. A 23-month-old boy went into anaphylaxis within minutes of mustard alone, and mustard is not a labelled major allergen in the United States, so a sauce can contain it without saying so. An 85-year-old woman on warfarin had her INR rise two to three times after cranberry sauce on two separate occasions, while most pharmacokinetic studies of cranberry and warfarin find no interaction. Neither case says how often this happens. If you take warfarin or you are avoiding an allergen, the ingredient list on the jar is the part to read, and an unexplained INR is a question for the person treating you. One reassurance is better founded. In 60 Chinese children given labelled zinc, iron-fortified soy sauce left zinc absorption unchanged at P = 0.39, which rules out a large interference at 20 children per group and leaves a small one open. What is missing is your own stove. Every trial above used an industrially made product, the USDA retention figures were matched to vegetables instead of to this category and were left out, and no study in our sources asks what simmering a sauce at home changes. Sauce is also a shelf, so what holds for tomato need not hold for soy, fish or cream.

Sources

1. sauc-r3-02 · regulation
   Sodium is specified here as the chemical entity or electrolyte “sodium” and is distinguished from sodium chloride, or salt, which is 39 percent sodium by weight.
   21 CFR 101.74, Health claims: sodium and hypertension · checked 2026-09-24
2. sauc-r3-10 · randomised controlled trial
   There were no significant differences in fractional Zn absorption (FZA) (P = 0.3895), dysprosium recovery (P = 0.7498) and Zn absorption (P = 0.5940) among the three groups. Therefore, NaFeEDTA-fortified soy sauce does not affect Zn bioavailability in children.
   Food Funct, 2015 · checked 2026-09-24
3. sauc-r3-11 · randomised crossover trial
   The plasma concentration and urinary excretion of naringenin glucuronide were both significantly higher after the consumption of tomato sauce than raw tomatoes...The results suggest that the mechanical and thermal treatments during tomato sauce manufacture may help to deliver these potentially bioactive phenolics from the food matrix more effectively than the addition of an oil component, thus increasing their bioavailability.
   Food Chem, 2015 · checked 2026-09-24
4. sauc-r3-12 · randomised crossover trial
   The results indicate that, compared to control intervention, a single tomato intake in any form decreased plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides and several cellular and plasma inflammatory biomarkers, and increased plasma high density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol and interleukine (IL) 10 concentrations.
   Nutrients, 2016 · checked 2026-09-24
5. sauc-r3-06 · meta-analysis
   For anemia rates, data from 16 studies could be pooled, and the pooled estimate odds ratio was 0.25 (95% CI 0.19-0.35). For hemoglobin concentrations, data from 12 studies could be pooled, and the pooled weighted mean difference was 8.81 g/L (95% CI 5.96-11.67).
   Biomed Environ Sci, 2015 · checked 2026-09-24
6. sauc-r3-07 · meta-analysis of cohort studies
   The pooled data suggested that compared with people who did not regularly consume spicy food (none/<1 d/wk), regular consumers of spicy food experienced a 12% (HR/RRpooled 0.88, 95% CI, 0.86-0.90; I2 = 0%) lower risk of all-cause mortality.
   Angiology, 2021 · checked 2026-09-24
7. sauc-r3-08 · randomised controlled trial
   A greater reduction in liver fat content was observed in participants consuming OsteoCol® compared to those receiving the placebo (CAP score: - 33 ± 44 dB/m vs. - 12 ± 38 dB/m, p = 0.014).
   Eur J Nutr, 2026 · checked 2026-09-24
8. sauc-r3-01 · regulation
   The scientific evidence indicates that reducing sodium intake lowers blood pressure and associated risks in many but not all hypertensive individuals. There is also evidence that reducing sodium intake lowers blood pressure and associated risks in many but not all normotensive individuals as well.
   21 CFR 101.74, Health claims: sodium and hypertension · checked 2026-09-24
9. sauc-r3-04 · case report
   Mustard is frequently present as a hidden ingredient in condiments, sauces, and processed foods and is not currently required to be disclosed as a major allergen under the United States Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA)...Skin prick testing demonstrated marked mustard sensitization with a 15 mm wheal and 25 mm flare response.
   Cureus, 2026 · checked 2026-09-24
10. sauc-r3-05 · case report
    An 85-year-old woman on chronic warfarin therapy for atrial fibrillation experienced INR elevations of two- to three-fold after two separate ingestions of cranberry sauce...Although the majority of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies did not find a significant interaction between cranberry and warfarin, several case reports indicate that cranberry products may increase INR values in patients on warfarin.
    Consult Pharm, 2012 · checked 2026-09-24
11. sauc-r3-13 · regulatory decision
    POL-HC-7535 Lycopenes from tomato pulp and sauces Tomato is as almost unique as a source of a specific carotene named: Lycopene; Therefore use it always is any conditions for its nutritional qualities Non-authorised
    EU Register on nutrition and health claims, claim POL-HC-7535, snapshot 2026-09-21 · checked 2026-09-24
12. sauc-r3-14 · randomised controlled trial
    The subjects were 72 healthy adults, randomly assigned to a water exposure group, a phenylethyl alcohol (PEA, pleasant rose-like odor) exposure group, and a Japanese soy sauce (Koikuchi Shoyu) exposure group (n = 24 each)...Sniffing the soy sauce increased the subjects' mFRT scores. This facilitation effect was odorant-specific and was absent when the subjects were presented with water or PEA.
    Occup Ther Int, 2019 · checked 2026-09-24
13. sauc-r3-03 · prospective cohort
    Multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of LBW were 1.72 (95% CI 1.01-2.91) for 5.0-10.0 g/day salt intake, and 2.06 (95% CI 1.02-4.13) for ≥10.0 g/day, compared to those of <5.0 g/day (p-trend = 0.04).
    Nutrients, 2025 · checked 2026-09-24
14. sauc-r3-09 · randomised controlled trial
    In modified intent-to-treat analysis, mean baseline-adjusted endline eTDP was higher among women in the low-concentration (282nM; 95% CI, 235nM to 310nM) and high-concentration (254nM; 95% CI, 225nM to 284nM) groups compared with the control group (193nM; 95% CI, 164nM to 222M; P < .05); low-concentration and high-concentration groups did not differ (P = .19).
    JAMA Pediatr, 2016 · checked 2026-09-24
15. sauc-r3-15 · randomised crossover trial
    Tomato sauce is the most commonly consumed processed tomato product worldwide, but very little is known about how the manufacturing process may affect the phenolic composition and bioavailability after consumption.
    Food Chem, 2015 · checked 2026-09-24