--- title: Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces description: Mars Food, which includes brands Dolmio and Uncle Ben's, will label certain pasta sauces advising "occasional" consumption. canonical: https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-15T16:44:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:47:39.971Z article:section: Health og:title: Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces og:description: Mars Food, which includes brands Dolmio and Uncle Ben's, will label certain pasta sauces advising "occasional" consumption. og:url: https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567f682154f0fecb/69888f482dce012b9c9e8ab1/mars-food-pasta-sauce-unhealthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Dolmio pasta sauces are seen in a store in in London og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces twitter:description: Mars Food, which includes brands Dolmio and Uncle Ben's, will label certain pasta sauces advising "occasional" consumption. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567f682154f0fecb/69888f482dce012b9c9e8ab1/mars-food-pasta-sauce-unhealthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=445fbe81-a259-476e-90c2-c1198444499c&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 15, 2016 4:44 PM UTC  Dolmio pasta sauces are seen in a store in in London on April 15, 2016. Dolmio pasta sauces are seen in a store in in London on April 15, 2016. Stefan Wermuth—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 15, 2016 4:44 PM UTC Mars Food, which includes brands Dolmio and Uncle Ben’s, will label certain pasta sauces advising “occasional” consumption in a new initiative to help customers structure a healthy diet. The labels will be put on products with high levels of salt, sugar or fat, such as Dolmio lasagne meal kits and lasagne sauces, [Reuters reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mars-food-guidelines-idUSKCN0XC165). The company will consider products with lower levels of salt, sugar or fat to be “everyday” meals, and the ones labeled “occasional” should be considered about once a week. “Our Nutrition Criteria sets a very high standard for our products, and we also want to help our consumers understand the difference between ‘everyday’ and ‘occasional’ products within a balanced diet,” Fiona Dawson, global president of Mars Food, Drinks, and Multisales, said in a [release](http://www.mars.com/global/press-center/press-list/news-releases.aspx?SiteId=94&Id=7109). Mars Food has also set targets to reduce sodium in its products by an average of 20 percent by 2021, and to reduce added sugar in certain sauces and light meals by 2018. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/"},"headline":"Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces","datePublished":"2016-04-15T16:44:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:47:39.971Z","description":"Mars Food, which includes brands Dolmio and Uncle Ben's, will label certain pasta sauces advising \"occasional\" consumption.","url":"https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/","keywords":["Food"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567f682154f0fecb/69888f482dce012b9c9e8ab1/mars-food-pasta-sauce-unhealthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt567f682154f0fecb/69888f482dce012b9c9e8ab1/mars-food-pasta-sauce-unhealthy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dolmio pasta sauces are seen in a store in in London","caption":"Dolmio pasta sauces are seen in a store in in London on April 15, 2016.","creditText":"Stefan Wermuth—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4296072/mars-food-unhealthy-pasta-sauce/","name":"Mars Food Will Start Labeling Its Less Healthy Pasta Sauces"}}]}] ```