The 10 Best Tomato Juices

by Shereen Jegtvig for foodessentials
Technorati Profile
Tomato juice is the most popular type of vegetable juice you’ll find in the grocery store. You can buy plain tomato juice, or one of the brands that spice it up a bit with added seasonings. Most brands of tomato juice are good for you; however, you might want to keep an eye open for added flavor enhancers, preservatives and colorings. While some of these added ingredients are natural, like carrot juice and vitamin C, some people who feel they are hypersensitive to citric acid would want to avoid a varieties.

We used the Foodessentials database to compare tomato juice to see which ones contain flavor enhancers and preservatives.

Tomato juice (presence of flavor enhancer, preservative and colorings)

Brand	Product	Flavor Enh	Preservs	Colors
Sacramento	From Concentrate	Citric Acid	Citric Acid, Vit C	Vit C, Carrot Juice
Red Gold	From Concentrate	Citric Acid	Citric Acid, Vit C	Carrot Juice, Vit C
Dei Fratelli	Tasty Tom Spicy	Citric Acid	Citric Acid	None
Glorietta	Fancy Concentrate	None	Vitamin C	Vitamin C
Stokely’s	From Concentrate	None	Vitamin C	Vitamin C
Red Gold	No Salt	None	Vitamin C	Vitamin C
Campbell’s	Concentrate	None	Vitamin C	Vitamin C
Welch’s	Bottled Tomato Juice	None	None	None
Dei Fratelli	Tomato Juice	None	None	None
Red Gold	Fresh Squeezed	None	Vitamin C	Vitamin C

Flavor Enhancers:

Sacramento, Red Gold Concentrate and Dei Fratelli Tasty Tom Spicy all contain citric acid, which is used to enhance the flavor of tomato juice. Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and it is often used to enhance flavor and as a preservative. Although it is considered safe to consume, anyone who has a citric acid sensitivity will want to avoid it.

Preservatives:

Sacramento, Red Gold Concentrate and Dei Fratelli Tasty Tom Spicy all use citric acid to do double duty as a flavor enhancer and as a preservative. They, along with most of the brands here, use vitamin C as a preservative. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that protects the cells in your body from free radical damage, and it is also used to protect some foods.

Colors, and Common Allergens:

All of the colors used appear to be acceptable. Sacramento and Red Gold From Concentrate uses a little carrot juice to add color and the vitamin C that works as a preservative also brightens the red color of tomato juice. Neither Dei Fratelli or the Welch’s brands contain any additional colorings.
None of these brands contains dairy, gluten, soy, aspartame, MSG or corn. In general, these brands of tomato juice contain very few ingredients, which makes them all winners.

And the Best Are…

The Welch’s bottle tomato juice and Dei Fratelli have nothing other than tomato juice and salt – no other added ingredients. However, If you don’t have a problem with citric acid, any of these brands would make a healthy addition to your daily intake of vegetables.

Learn More About Other Foods

Use our Foodessentials database to explore other types of chips:

Low Sodium Canned Tomatoes

Grapefruit Juice – High to Low Sugars

Goji Berry Drinks and Sweeteners

Stewed Tomatoes and Sulphites

Shereen Jegtvig has a masters degree in human nutrition and 16 years clinical experience in nutritional counseling. She writes about nutrition for About.com and TypeAMom.net. She is also the co-author of the upcoming book, Superfoods For Dummies.

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