PFAS Found in Organic Tomato Pasta Sauce — Purchasing Guide 2022

Which store-bought tomato and pasta sauces do NOT contain indications of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances aka PFAS “forever chemicals”? Mamavation sent 55 tomato & marinara sauces (both organic and conventional) to an EPA-certified laboratory to discover that 8% of tested products in 2021 contained indications of PFAS. Which brands had detections and how is this possible? The answers were surprising.

You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like safest cookware sans PFAS, safest organic mattresses sans PFAS, & best water filters that filter PFAS, now join us for our latest consumer study on indications of PFAS in the grocery aisle. This week we are bringing you the results of 55 tomato, marinara, & pasta sauces from 2021 & 2022. For the raw data on different products, scroll down to the bottom.

Disclosure: This consumer study is released in partnership with Environmental Health News. Scientific reviews were performed by (1) Terrence Collins, Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry & Director of Institute for Green Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, (2) Linda Birnbaum, Scientist Emeritus and Former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, (3) Pete Myers, Chief Scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, and Co-Author of Our Stolen Future, & (4) Scott Belcher, Associate Professor with the Center for Environmental & Health Effects of PFAS at North Carolina State University. This post was medically reviewed by Sondra Strand, RN, BSN, PHN. Donations were provided by Environmental Health News and Mamavation community members. Mamavation has only “spot-checked” the industry and thus we cannot make predictions about brands and products that we have not tested. Products and manufacturing aides can change without notice so buyer beware. This post contains affiliate links, with some to Amazon, which means Mamavation will receive a portion of those sales and we will use that to pay ourselves back for the testing. You can also give a tax-deductible donation to our consumer studies here through Environmental Health Sciences. Click “yes” when asked if the gift is in honor of someone and type “Mamavation.” Thank you!  

Mamavation Finds Indications of PFAS “Forever Chemicals” in Store-Bought Organic Pasta Sauce

Mamavation sent 55 store-bought tomato & pasta sauce products off to an EPA-certified laboratory to determine if organic fluorine, a marker of PFAS, was present at 10 parts per million (ppm) or above in 2021. Organic fluorine can be used as a marker for PFAS because every PFAS chemical has at least one fluorine atom. We purchased the products between September 2021 and February 2022 from Amazon.com, using Instacart, or in-store from retailers in Los Angeles and Boston. Each item was photographed and then sent off to the lab. We then re-tested products in 2022 that had detections in 2021 for comparison. The results were overall good news, however, it underscores some issues that need to be addressed in the organic industry in terms of PFAS.

• Good news first! 92% of store-bought tomato & pasta sauces in 2021 had NO indications of PFAS “forever chemicals” at a detection level of 10 parts per million (ppm), but 8% of store-bought tomato & pasta sauces sent to our lab were reported to contain indications of PFAS. Only 4 out of 55 products sent to the lab had detections in 2021.
• Surprisingly, all products tested in 2021 with indications of PFAS were certified USDA Organic. This may be because USDA organic standards for food don’t prohibit PFAS as an indirect additive in manufacturing. Obviously, we think this needs to change. 24% of organic products tested had indications of PFAS “forever chemicals,” which was 4 out of 17 products in 2021.
• Overall Cleanest Product: No store-bought tomato sauces were found to have indications of PFAS in 2021. It was only found in marinara & pasta sauces where there were more complicated ingredients. This included tomato sauces in glass and cans.
• Good news! Repeat testing of organic fluorine months later (of the products that had detections in 2021) all got non-detect results over 10 parts per million in 2022.
• However, additional testing in 2021 identified two different PFAS chemicals below 10ppm: Perfluoropropanoic acid (PFPrA) & Perfluorononanesulfonic acid (PFNS). 

Linda Birnbaum, who served as the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Toxicology Program for over a decade and who also reviewed this investigation says “The good news is that only 8% of the tomato and pasta sauces contained PFAS. But why should there be ANY in our food?”

Good question Linda!

PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Are Linked to Problematic Health Effects

PFAS “forever chemicals” are problematic to human health and the environment. They are considered persistent, ubiquitous, and very toxic. Because they do not naturally exit the body for many months or many years and are not known to degrade in the environment, they are considered “forever chemicals.” Therefore, it’s imperative to reduce the amount of PFAS you are exposed to by food and water. Here’s a list of health effects PFAS chemicals are linked to presently:

• reduction in immunity
• reduced vaccination response
• increased risk of allergies & asthma in young children
• affect the growth, learning, and behavior of infants and older children
• increase cholesterol levels
• metabolic diseases like obesity & diabetes
• cardiovascular disease
• lower a woman’s chance of getting pregnant
• increase the chances of miscarriage 
• lowers male fertility through low sperm count
• smaller penis size
• increase the risk of kidney & testicular cancers
• Causes endocrine disruption
• Disrupts normal thyroid function

One of our scientific advisors on this project had something personal to add. Terrence Collins, Ph.D., Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry, & Director of Institute for Green Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University had this warning for consumers:

“Mamavation is performing a vital public service by identifying forever PFAS chemicals in tomato and pasta sauce. We all should be able to eat these delicious staples without fearing for the health of our families. I am fearful for my grandchildren over what Mamavation is finding. PFAS compounds can be associated with injuries to the sex organs and fertility at tiny doses as well as cancer and other adverse effects. Once you ingest PFAS deadlies you will have them in you for a very long time–perhaps your whole life. Take in carefully what Mamavation is telling you and act on it in any way you can to protect yourself and your family.”

If you feel like you’ve been exposed to PFAS, especially during pregnancy, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of Community Health Investigations has created this health advisory fact sheet to use when talking to your doctor. While regulating authorities struggle to catch up, it would be wise to limit your daily exposure to PFAS markers within food like pasta sauce or ketchup.

How is PFAS Getting Into Food Products?

We were surprised to report that our laboratory found detections of PFAS “forever chemicals” inside USDA organic pasta sauces. In fact, our laboratory found indications of PFAS in 24% of the organic products tested in 2021. To understand how this happened, we must draw on what we have learned in other PFAS consumer studies (like ketchup and green beauty makeup), online public sources, and interviews with professionals in the food industry. Here is what we came up with that may answer those questions.

The FDA Has Already Detected Legacy PFAS in Food

In 2019, it was reported by Associated Press that the Food & Drug Administration had detected PFAS in several types of food, mostly meats, seafood, and grocery store chocolate cake. This sent shockwaves through the food industry and later the FDA recanted and never published those findings. However, the internet is forever, and you can still find the visual aids on a poster board that was used by the FDA during the conference where they communicated this problem to other Europeans. Luckily, scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund were present and were able to capture that picture.

As you can see, the FDA found detections in different types of meat, seafood, chocolate cake, sweet potatoes, & pineapples. However, the odd part is these amounts were measured in the parts per trillion (ppt), which are a million times lower than the parts per million (ppm) where we are testing. In other words, we have found indications of PFAS in far greater amounts than what the FDA reported at a conference in 2019.

It’s important to also note that the FDA only tested for 16 PFAS compounds, whereas, our organic fluorine testing actually looks for the presence of all 10,000+ PFAS chemicals by looking for a chemical marker instead. To ensure we are only getting what is most likely to be man-made PFAS (aka organic fluorine), and not fluorine from water treatment, the lab does further tests. Thus we are looking for over 10,000 PFAS compounds while the FDA is only looking for 16. The FDA cannot find what they are NOT looking for. 

So what is the FDA doing? It seems as if they are working behind the scenes with chemical companies to phase out specific PFAS chemicals, but they are not moving to ban anything. And they certainly are not moving to ban PFAS as an entire chemical category. Getting agreements from certain companies does not prevent others (perhaps from overseas) from getting their chemicals into American products. Instead, leadership on PFAS restrictions is coming from individual states.

If you would like to get more involved in demanding the FDA review and ban PFAS in food production, packaging, and manufacturing, check out our partners at the Food Chemical Alliance. It’s a group of numerous and recognizable organizations (ahem Mamavation included) lobbying the FDA.

FDA has Approved PFAS as an Indirect Additive in Manufacturing & It May Be Impossible to Identify in the Lab

The FDA authorized several classes of PFAS for use as food contact indirect additives in the 1960s. Today there are over 3,000 indirect additive chemicals approved in food manufacturing. The FDA recognizes all these applications of PFAS have the ability to migrate into your food in trace amounts. The debate is over how much is dangerous and how to identify them. Frustratingly, most of the polymerized PFAS chemicals used in food manufacturing do not have methods developed that can isolate and identify them.

Scott Belcher, Ph.D. & Associate Professor with the Center for Environmental & Health Effects of PFAS at North Carolina State University says “fluoropolymers, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or Teflon®, are extremely common forms of PFAS that could be contributing to the organic fluorine found in food products. Methods used for detecting individual PFAS, such as PFOA or GenX, cannot directly identify PTFE. However, the analysis of total organic fluorine does account for all PFAS contaminants in food, including PTFE.”

Therefore, this can get very tricky for consumers and brands to navigate. This is why Mamavation operates marker testing of organic fluorine instead. Take a look below at all the applications for PFAS as an indirect additive according to the FDA. Clearly, there are lots of polymers happening that are impossible to isolate and identify.

• Non-stick Cookware: PFAS is approved for use in making cookware & bakeware, small kitchen appliances, and things like air fryers. PFAS is polymerized here so there are very few ways to directly test and identify them.
• Gaskets, O-Rings, and other parts used in food processing equipment: PFAS molecules are polymerized and a resin is created in forming certain parts used in food processing equipment. Typically, this equipment requires chemical and physical durability, however, it’s assumed it can get into your food in trace amounts. Because these chemicals are polymerized, there is no direct testing to identify most of them.
• Processing Aids: PFAS may be used as processing aids for manufacturing other food contact polymers to reduce build-up on manufacturing equipment.  These processing aids can get into your food in trace amounts, however, the molecules may or may not be polymerized. It’s unknown how many chemicals are used as processing aids, however, if they are based on a polymer, there’s no way to directly identify most of them.
• Paper/paperboard Food Packaging: PFAS may be used as grease-proofing agents in fast-food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, take-out paperboard containers, pet food bags, & cake bottoms at the bakery, to prevent oil and grease from foods from leaking through the packaging.
• Fluorination of Plastics: There’s confusion on whether the FDA approved the fluorination of food contact plastics like polyethylene in 1983. Regardless, the plastic industry has been selling fluorinated food contact plastics for decades. In 2021, the FDA sent letters to companies to remind them that fluorinating food contact plastics was not approved. It seems as if no further steps have been taken. But some plastic companies are still operating as usual. For example, Berlin Packaging states on their website, “If you are using a plastic container to hold a liquid substance, your product may benefit from fluorination. Fluorinated containers are used for a variety of applications from industrial and auto to pharmaceutical or food and beverage. Five levels of fluorination are available. The appropriate level depends on the type of plastic product being packaged.” Sadly, all fluorinated plastics are polymers and most cannot be directly identified through testing.
• Transportation & Storage: Getting the ingredients of your food from one place to another is another way that PFAS can find its way into your food. From storage containers that could be made of fluorinated plastic to totes (which are big plastic vats) used to transport items, there is no way of knowing what those raw ingredients touched. For instance, If the containers of raw ingredients were heated in any way, maybe from being exposed to sunlight over a long sea voyage, it could make PFAS more likely to leach into ingredients. Because of the likelihood of fluorinated plastics being involved, it’s impossible to directly identify through testing.

USDA Organic Standards Do Not Prohibit PFAS in Manufacturing or Require Testing of Soil

We reached out to the Organic Trade Association to get a better understanding of how the USDA organic standards can impact the use of PFAS in food manufacturing.

According to Reana Kovalcik, Director of Public Relations for the Organic Trade Association, “Certifiers review packaging and equipment as a potential source of contamination, but packaging material components like perchlorate or BPA (or PFAS) are regulated by the FDA and are classified as indirect food additives. PFAS as an indirect additive or residual contaminant is not specifically addressed by the organic regulations. Just like BPA, as an indirect additive, PFAS is outside of the scope of the NOP standards.” In other words, organic doesn’t prohibit the use of PFAS as an indirect additive in manufacturing.

The USDA Organic Standards do prohibit the use of biosolids (also known as “sewage sludge”) in use on the farm, which is really good news because biosolids can contain PFAS from wastewater treatment plants. But in practical application, this may not matter because PFAS are so persistent and can stick around for decades. Once they are on the land, they have staying power, which is why they are referred to as “forever chemicals.”  If biosolids were applied on farmland prior to gaining organic certification, they could still be present decades later. USDA organic certification does not require farmers to test their soil for PFAS so the consumer would have no way of assuring they were safe from PFAS through the organic certification.

Case in point, recently Songbird Farms, known for its heritage Maine grains, was the first organic farmstead (that only farms produce and not dairy or meat) to shut down its operations after finding PFAS on their property. They said in a statement on their website, “We were just blindsided to learn that our home farm and primary lease field were licensed for the spreading of bio-solids in the early 1990s, (24 years before we purchased our farm and moved to Unity).”

Therefore, the historic use of biosolids on an organic farm may impact the quality of what is produced on that farmstead. Maybe there is a need for another certification that tests and certifies food free from indications of PFAS and other types of plasticizers. Can someone create that, please?

Fluorinated Plastic Contamination Found in Other Industries

From our green beauty makeup PFAS consumer report, we have been privy to the reformulation efforts of several green beauty brands. Many brands reached out to us for direction on what to look for to clean up their supply chain. In fact, we continue to help green beauty brands behind the scenes in their efforts to find PFAS in their supply chain and are also involved in lobbying for change. Therefore, we know that fluorinated plastics have become a big problem in the cosmetic industry. And just like other PFAS polymers, it’s impossible to identify and test for them directly, thus marker testing must be used.

Pete Myers, Ph.D., chief scientist and founder of Environmental Health Sciences, as well as Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, upon reviewing the results commented:

“Kudos to Leah Segedie and Mamavation for undertaking these analyses. They continue to be eye-opening. Worse: eye shattering. Given the well-documented, serious health effects of a range of PFAS, this family of ‘forever chemicals’ has no business in common consumer products. Fluorination of plastics should not be approved for food contact! Where is the FDA?”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found fluorinated plastics leaching PFAS from plastic HDPE pesticide containers. Since then, other industries using similar plastics have been warned.

Fluorination of plastics only happens to the “safer” plastics.

• Polyethylene (#1, #2)
• Polypropylene (#5)

Through interviewing green beauty industry experts, we discovered some plastic manufacturers were fluorinating plastic containers and not including that information on the material sheets. In order to fix their problem, they had to independently test storage containers, product plastic, and packaging to find the issues. Therefore, it’s possible that the food industry may be suffering the same fate as the cosmetic industry. Are we finding polymer-based PTFE chemicals? We would have no way of being sure, but it’s a possibility.

Smaller Specialized Manufacturers May Be Using Older Equipment & Practices

The overwhelmingly good news is 92% of the manufacturers are not getting detectable PFAS into your tomato or marinara sauce, but for the 8% that is, it may have something to do with older equipment or practices.

In terms of our ketchup consumer study, we found the largest producer/manufacturer to be the cleanest behind the scenes. That was ketchup from Heinz, so we’ve linked up their organic version here, which we also tested.

In our interviewing process, we discovered from sources in the food industry there were very few ketchup manufacturers in the United States. So because there are not many places for ketchup brands to have their product manufactured, it makes sense we found some problems with most of the brands.

It seems as if tomato and pasta sauces are not suffering from a similar fate, being that we only found 8% of what we tested had detectable levels of organic fluorine. The contradictions feel vast. The prevailing wisdom is “smaller being better”, however, this may not be true in terms of PFAS.  Bigger manufacturers may have more resources to update machinery and other equipment. Another example of smaller brands struggling with PFAS contamination is green beauty makeup.

The Supply Chain Was Dramatically Disrupted In 2020 & 2021

Let’s be honest here. Things have been very disruptive lately. Do you remember the last week before most cities went under lockdown? Entire countries were locked down and so were their workers, manufacturing plants, transportation, etc. This later led to massive disruption in the global supply chain. Every brand I’ve interviewed for this investigation or for others has told me they had to change the sources of some of their ingredients in 2020 and 2021, and it was very stressful. This year, 2022, has been the first semblance of normalcy, but even now, things are not what they were in early 2020.

So to put that into perspective, in 2020 many food brands had to change some of their ingredient sourcing. So where were they getting everything in 2021 when we did our original testing? I’m not sure. We found detections in four organic pasta sauces at similar levels. Could they have all had a similar ingredient (that was only found in organics) that is no longer present in 2022? No one can be sure, but it looks as if something was present in 2021 that simply isn’t there above our detection levels in 2022.

When we interviewed professionals about the supply chain for this investigation, we were told that finding organic fluorine over 10ppm and then not finding it the following year wasn’t surprising at all. Inside the supply chain are many middlemen and those people were taking ingredient orders and adjusting where they were getting their supply. These changes may or may not have been known by the brands. The squeeze was also felt in the transportation industry getting the goods to the customer, whereas the ports were at a stand-still, and again, brands sourcing ingredients had to get creative to get their goods. In the midst of this chaos, anything seems possible.

Tips For How To Avoid PFAS in Your Pasta Sauce

Are you making a basic tomato sauce with tomatoes, basil leaves, olives, red pepper flakes, extra virgin olive oil, and garlic? It sounds delicious. Perhaps you are looking to buy something store-bought, heat in a saucepan, stir and taste, add your own mix of spices if needed, then top it off with sea salt & black pepper.

No tomato sauces tested by Mamavation were found to have detectable levels above 10 parts per million (ppm), we only found it in pasta sauce and marinara. This is why we recommend making your own pasta sauce using our “best” or “better” tomato sauces from scratch made in your own kitchen using your own ingredients. Or simply select a brand we tested that did not have detectable organic fluorine.

Here are some tips on how to keep PFAS out of your pasta sauce:

• Tomato Sauce: Check out one of our favorite brands, Jovial crushed tomatoes, because they use glass packaging and our lab has informed us they are free-from detectable indications of PFAS above 1o ppm.
• Spices: Flavor and spice up your recipes with spices “free-from” problematic heavy metals.
• Most Important Herbs to Grow: Consider planting your own herb garden to lower the heavy metals found in store-bought dried oregano and thyme. But also make sure to plant fresh basil because it’s amazing.
• Cookware: Consider using PFAS free and nano-material-free cookware.
• Cookbooks: Vibrant Botanicals (recipes using adaptogens & healing herbs), Danielle Walker’s Eat What You Love (gluten-free dairy-free paleo recipes), Graze (small plates & charcuterie inspirations), Old World Italian (Italian from travels), Anti-Inflammatory for Slow Cookers.
• Gardening: Epic Tomatoes (how to select best varieties & grow them), The Year Long Vegetable Grower (growing with the seasons), & Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners (how to start a raised garden).
• Composting: Consider getting a Subpod to make composting easier and here are some red wiggler worms to get started. And here’s an adorable stainless steel compost bin for the kitchen to capture your kitchen scraps. (Or alternatively, consider making something special with some of those scraps.)

Very soon we hope to have an investigation for you on cooking oils that we can add to this list! Now let’s get to the raw data from all the testing.

Raw Data from Mamavation’s Investigation on Indications of PFAS “Forever Chemicals” in Store-Bought Tomato & Pasta Sauces

An EPA-certified laboratory tested each of the 55 tomato & pasta sauces in 2021 for organic fluorine, which is a marker for PFAS. Non-detect products only required one test for total fluorine, however, detectable amounts required a second test to determine organic fluorine. The specific lab method used by Mamavation tested for total fluorine by using the Determination of Total Fluorine by Oxygen Flask Combustion and Ion-Selective Electrode. If detectable total fluorine was observed at a detection level of 10ppm, the lab did a Determination of Total Fluoride Ion by Ion-Selective Electrode and then calculated organic fluorine by difference.

In 2022, we repeated the organic fluorine testing of products that had detectable levels in 2021. We also sent those same four products off to have the PFAS compounds analyzed and identified (in the parts per billion) as best we could looking for 68 possible analytes.

Important note–There is currently no consensus on how to spot-check pasta sauce for PFAS. All methods at this point are non-validated. They nonetheless can still be used in revealing the presence of organic fluorine and spot-checking for indications of PFAS.

Finally, we separated the list into the following categories to help with your shopping needs:

• “Not Our Favorite” list of tomato & marinara sauces consists of brands and products that tested for detectable organic fluorine at any time (either in 2021 or 2022).
• “Better” products have had non-detectable results at the laboratory, but are not USDA-certified organic brands.
• “Best” are both USDA certified organic, but also had non-detectable results.

Not Our Favorite Tomato & Pasta Sauces with Detectable Indications of PFAS Via Lab Results

We worked with two different laboratories to produce these findings. One laboratory tested for organic fluorine at a detection level of 10 ppm in 2021. The products that had a detection in 2021 had repeat testing done with additional products in 2022, but also were sent for additional testing that can isolate and identify 68 different PFAS chemicals. Mind you, there are over 12,000 PFAS chemicals so this is limited testing, but it’s a type of testing that can give us more detail about what is inside the bottle.

• 365 Whole Foods Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce (11 parts per million organic fluorine in 2021, non-detect organic fluorine in 2022 with a detection level of 10ppm, however, the lab also identified 400 parts per trillion perfluoropropanoic acid PFPrA)
• Muir Glen Organic Italian Herb Pasta Sauce (12 parts per million organic fluorine in 2021, non-detect organic fluorine in 2022 with a detection level of 10 ppm, of the 68 analytes that were tested for, none were identified.)
• Organicville Italian Herb Pasta Sauce (21 ppm organic fluorine, non-detect organic fluorine in 2022 with a detection level of 10ppm, of the 68 analytes that were tested for, none were identified.)
• Trader Joes Organic Tomato Basil Marinara (11 parts per million organic fluorine, non-detect organic fluorine in 2022 with a detection level of 10ppm, however, the lab also identified 200 parts per trillion Perfluorononanesulfonic acid – PFNS)

Better Non-Organic Tomato & Pasta Sauces without Indications of PFAS via Lab Results

These products were only tested in 2021. All the brands in this category are not organic and were not found to have any detectable organic fluorine above 10 parts per million. Because these brands are not organic, they are more likely to have detectable levels of toxic synthetic pesticide residue. However, there are many popular brands in this category that are also Non-GMO Project Verified.

• Antonio Carlo Authentic Italian marinara sauce
• Barilla Marinara All Natural Pasta Sauce
• Botticelli marinara sauce
• Carbone Marinara Pasta sauce
• Cascones Authentic Italian Sauces Marinara Family Style Rich Tomato Pasta Sauce
• Cento Marinara pasta sauce
• Classico pasta sauce
• Colavita tomato sauce
• Contidina Roma Tomatoes Sauce canned tomato sauce
• Cucina Antica Tomato Basil Cooking Sauce
• Del Monte tomato sauce
• Due Amici Premium quality classic marinara
• Emeril’s Marinara pasta sauce
• Frescorti Marinara pasta sauce
• Goya Tomato sauce Spanish Style
• Hudson Green Plant-based Velvet Vodka Dairy-Free & Creamy sauce
• Hunts Premium Pasta Sauce, Traditional
• Hunts 100% Natural tomato sauce
• Iberia tomato sauce
• KC Natural No Tomato Carrot Keto Marinara Sauce
• Mezzetta Family Co. Made with Care Marinara Sauce
• Michael’s of Brooklyn Pasta Sauce
• Mina Shakshuka Moroccan tomato sauce
• Monte Bene tomato basil pasta sauce
• Newman’s Own No Sugar Added Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Nomato Totally Tomato Free Marinara Sauce
• Paesana Low Sodium Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Pastene “the chateau” tomato sauce
• Pomi Tomato Sauce in boxes
• Prego Italian Sauce Traditional
• Primal Kitchen Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce Made with Avocado Oil
• Ragu Rich & Smooth! Old World Style Pasta Sauce, Traditional
• Raos Homemade Marinara pasta sauce
• Rosellis Food Specialties Marinara Spaghetti Sauce Gluten-Free
• Schiavone Casa Mia Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Stanislaus Full Red California Marinara sauce
• The Vine Vegan Marinara
• The Silver Palate Low Sodium Marinara San Marzano Tomato Pasta Sauce
• Trader Joes Tomato Basil Marinara
• Tuscanini Tomato sauce
• Tuttorosso Tomato Sauce
• Victorias marinara pasta sauce

Best Organic Tomato & Pasta Sauces without Indications of PFAS Via Lab Results

These are organic tomato and pasta sauces without indications of PFAS “forever chemicals” via lab results in 2021. These brands are USDA-certified organic and do not have any detectable organic fluorine over 10 parts per million according to our laboratory reports. All plain organic tomato sauces, whether canned or uncanned, did not have detectable levels. We only found detectable levels of organic fluorine in organic pasta sauces with additional ingredients.

• 365 Whole Foods Organic tomato sauce
• Amy’s Organic Tomato basil pasta sauce
• Great Value (Walmart Brand) Organic Pasta Sauce
• HEB Organics Marinara Pasta Sauce
• Jovial 100% organic crushed tomatoes sweet & Pure from Italy
• Lucini Organic Rustic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
• Kirkland Organic Marinara Sauce
• Natural Value Organic Tomato Sauce Mama Mia
• Newman’s Own Organics Marinara No Sugar Added Pasta Sauce
• Organico Bello Tomato Basil Organic Pasta Sauce
• Otamot organic essential sauce
• Simply Nature (Aldi Brand) Organic Tomato & Basic Pasta
• Wegman’s Organic Italian Classics Marinara Sauce

Other Mamavation PFAS Testing Projects

Mamavation has been working hard to discover where to find PFAS “forever chemicals” inside food & other products we purchase and bring inside our homes. This is why we have decided to commission our own consumer studies on indications of PFAS in different consumer categories and share that information with you. If you would like to support Mamavation’s testing, you can donate here to some of our upcoming projects.

• Soft Contact Lenses
• Green Beauty Makeup
• Dental Floss
• Toilet Paper
• Period Underwear
• Tampons
• Sanitary Pads, Pantiliners, & Incontinence Pads
• Powdered Electrolytes
• Butter Wrappers
• Pasta & Tomato Sauces
• Nut Butters (Peanut butter, etc.)
• Cooking Oils (olive oil, almond oil, canola oil, etc)
• Ketchup
• Activewear (Yoga Pants)
• Sports Bras
• Parchment Paper
• Cupcake Liners
• Plastic-Free Straws
• Fast Food Packaging
• Children’s Probiotics
• Kids’ Backpacks
• Baby Strollers

We also have other investigations you may like.

• Best Yoga mats 
• Best Organic Mattresses
• Best Air purifiers
• Best Cookware
• Best Plant-Based Milks
• Best Water Filters for PFAS Filtration
• Best Collagen
• Best Electrolyte Replacement Drinks, Sports Drinks, & Coconut Water
• Best Infrared Saunas