Is Passata Ultra-Processed?
No — passata is just sieved tomatoes, sometimes with salt or citric acid
No. Passata is one of the cleanest products in the supermarket. Every brand we checked at Tesco — Mutti, Cirio, Napolina, and Tesco own-brand — contains at most three ingredients: tomatoes, salt, and citric acid (an acidity regulator). Mutti is the simplest at just tomato (99.5%) and salt. All passata scores NOVA 2 (processed culinary ingredient) with zero UPF markers. It is fundamentally just cooked, sieved tomatoes in a carton or jar.
Why Passata scores NOVA 2 — Processed
Passata is made by cooking tomatoes, passing them through a sieve to remove skin and seeds, and bottling the result. This is minimal processing — the same thing you would do at home with a food mill.
We checked seven passata products at Tesco and found remarkable consistency:
- Mutti Passata (both 400g and 700g) contains just 'Tomato 99.5%, Salt' — two ingredients, zero additives, NOVA 2. - Tesco Tomato Passata, Napolina Passata, Cirio Passata, and Tesco Organic Passata all add one more ingredient: citric acid as an acidity regulator. Citric acid is a natural compound found in citrus fruits and is used to adjust the pH for safe preservation. Under NOVA classification, this keeps the product at NOVA 2.
Cirio and Napolina list the citric acid identically. The only difference between brands is price — Tesco own-brand at £0.65 is a third the cost of Mutti at £2.15 for a similar product.
No passata product contained any emulsifiers, flavourings, preservatives, sweeteners, colours, or modified starches. This makes passata one of the safest pantry staples from a UPF perspective.
Note: passata is different from pasta sauces, which often contain sugar, flavourings, modified starch, and other additives that push them into NOVA 3-4 territory.
Passata at Tesco — NOVA scores
Source: Tesco product page, March 2026
*Prices were correct at the time of collection and may have since changed. Check Tesco.com for current pricing.
What to look for when shopping
Passata is consistently clean across all brands — you cannot really go wrong. The main thing to avoid is accidentally buying a pasta sauce instead of passata. Pasta sauces (Dolmio, Tesco Tomato & Mascarpone, etc.) often contain sugar, modified starch, flavourings, and cream, pushing them into NOVA 3-4. Stick with products labelled 'passata' and check the ingredients list has no more than 3 items. Budget tip: Tesco Tomato Passata at £0.65 for 500g is one of the best value clean-ingredient products in the entire store.
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