Is Tesco Tomato & Mascarpone Pasta Sauce ultra-processed?

Tomato sauces Sold in the United Kingdom and France

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Thickener
E415 Xanthan gum

15 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score B

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 48%, Tomato Purée 30%, Mascarpone Full Fat Soft Cheese, Cream, Onion, Sugar (processing marker), Sunflower Oil (processing marker), Cornflour, Salt (processing marker), Garlic Purée, Herbs, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Thickener (ultra-processing marker) (Xanthan Gum (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E330 Citric acid , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Tomato (48%), Partially Reconstituted Tomato Purée (30%), Mascarpone Full Fat Soft Cheese (Milk) (10%), Cream (Milk), Onion, Sugar, Sunflower Oil, Cornflour, Salt, Garlic Purée, Herbs, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Thickener (Xanthan Gum).

What makes it ultra-processed

Cosmetic additives

Added to change how the food looks, feels or tastes, not to keep it safe. A hallmark of ultra-processed food.

E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.

3 ingredients that would only make it processed

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.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 442 tomato sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 401st. 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 5052910834508, last edited 1 June 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 B (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.