Is Essential Waitrose Tomato and mascarpone sauce ultra-processed?

Tomato sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

It's processed, but not ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Whole foods combined with:

Salt
Starch
Sugar
Cheese

13 ingredients
No additives
Nutri-Score C

Less processed tomato sauces

Less processed isn't automatically healthier, so compare the labels for what matters to you, such as sugar or salt.

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Tomato 45%, water, mascarpone (processing marker), onion, cornflour, medium fat hard cheese (processing marker), rapeseed oil, garlic puree, salt (processing marker), sugar (processing marker), parsley, black pepper, potato starch (processing marker)

As written on the pack

Tomato (45%), water, mascarpone (milk) (12%), onion, cornflour, medium fat hard cheese (milk), rapeseed oil, garlic puree, salt, sugar, parsley, black pepper, potato starch

What makes it processed

Processed ingredients

Processed foods in their own right, such as cheese or milk powder.

Cheese Cheese is milk preserved with salt, cultures and rennet.

Culinary ingredients

Kitchen staples like sugar, salt and oil. On their own they make a food processed, not ultra-processed.

Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 442 tomato sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 165th. 40% of the tomato sauces here are ultra-processed.

Ranked by NOVA group, then by the number of ultra-processing signs, additives and ingredients. Our ordering, not part of NOVA.

All 442 tomato sauces, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000169538272, last edited 4 May 2026), available under the Open Database License. If something is wrong or the recipe has changed, you can correct it there.
Photo: Open Food Facts contributors, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The NOVA group is an automated estimate from crowdsourced data: a missing or mistyped ingredient can change it.
NOVA measures processing, not nutrition. For nutrition, Open Food Facts gives this product a Nutri-Score of C (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.