How to get homemade sauce to keep - avoiding UPFs

[Cigent]

I'm trying to avoid UPFs if possible, but I have a huge weakness for sauces. I know I can make them easy enough from scratch, but how do I get them to keep more than a day or two? TIA

Which sauces in particular? Most sauces freeze well.

I wanted to say Salt, but apparently that is the ultimate UPF ingredient.
Sorry. Good luck!

Batch cook, then greeze them in whatever portion size is convenient. Most sauces freeze well.

Freeze in ice trays. Once frozen, remove from teat and storage in glass jars in the freezer, take one out as required

Do you mean sauce as in bechamel, hollaondaise etc or more as in ketchup? If the latter, they are full of salt, sugar and vinegar (but eaten in small quantities so no problem) and are designed to keep for a lot longer than a few days, especially in the fridge.

If condiments I buy Hunter and Gather ketchup and mayo. No sugar and no veg oils. A handful of ingredients. A compromise?

What kind of sauce? If it's just condiments like mustard or Worcestershire sauce the small quantities are probably not that significant.

Surely salt isn't UPF, it's naturally occurring? OK can be used in UPF as part of the flavour hit.....
But flavour is what sauces are about!

Salt is a chemical. But all chemicals occur naturally. What's not natural is adding them to food.

What sort of sauces are you wanting to keep for several days?

Every meal I cook or sauce I make I do at least double and freeze the rest.
Sauces can be heated from frozen, just freeze in whatever portion size you want.

People have been using salt to preserve food for literally thousands of years.
We had salt before we had freezers, and I for one would say home made pickles and ketchups are fine.

Try plum ketchup it absolutely gives HP a run for its money. Bottle hot in clean sterilised air tight bottles or jars.

Agree with others - what sort of sauces? But most freeze well. If you're talking condiments, I'dd think that good recipes would include things like vinegar or salt as preservatives, although appreciate those might not be in your preferred ingredients list.

Sorry, I missed the most important part out! Mayonnaise. I have an absolutely weakness for mayonnaise but all the sauces in shops seem to be made with rapeseed oil. I know it's not difficult to make, but I don't want to be making it myself every couple of days to go with my dinner.

Will mayonnaise freeze though?

Google suggests home made mayo should be good for a week, you could make a jar at the weekend maybe?

Humans have been using salt for thousands of years. It's about as far from UPF as you can get.

UPF are known for being high salt foods, says Aussie source.
and an Italian source.
and Zoe company,
and British Heart foundation.
Definitely salt is something to be careful with. High salt is an indicator for UPF.

Salt is often added to UPFs, but definitely isn't one itself. There is nothing wrong with salt being added to home cooked meals.

We need a certain amount of salt for healthy functioning! If you’re generally fitting out UPFs you shouldn’t be having that much and it’ll be fine to add to home cooked food. If your blood pressure errs on the lower side I’d be even less concerned than that.

God imagine eating unsalted food 😷

"there is little consistency either in the definition of ultra-processed foods"

That same source mentions a definition that "alludes mainly to the use of both food additives and salt in food products"

and another source, which has "an emphasis on the inclusion of salt, sugars, oils, and fats as a starting point for defining ultra-processed foods"

and some other definitions, that mention added salt as key feature. I mean, decide what you like, but plenty of sources say added salt is a hallmark of UPF. No consensus to exclude it.

It's one of those 'bread causes crime' situations though isn't it.

UPFs are likely contain a high amount of salt. That doesn't make salt a UPF.

I thought the definition of UPF was that it contained lots of ingredients that aren't found in a domestic kitchen.
Salt might be present in high quantities in many UPFs but it's presence doesn't mean that a food definitely is UPF.

That is exactly what it is. Salt isn't a UPF and it being added to another food doesn't automatically make that a UPF. Salt is a culinary ingredient and is in Group 2 of the NOVA system.

www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf

Preserving in jars is easy. Buy a preserving pan and save some jam jars.

Or freezing, obviously.