Red alert: Where's the tomato in instant soup?

AHMEDABAD: Your tomato soup may be red but chances are there's very little tomato in it. The Consumer Education and Research Society recently tested 11 varieties of six popular brands of instant tomato soup and found only one of them had the highest content of tomato — that too little over 10%.
The research was conducted to find out the content of lycopene, sodium and sugar in tomato soup powder.Lycopene contains bright red carotenoid (organic pigment). Cartenoid is also found in red fruits and vegetables like carrots, watermelons and papayas but is absent in strawberries and cherries. Lycopene is an antioxidant. Studies show a daily intake of 7-8 mg of lycopene is enough to fight oxidative stress and prevent chronic diseases.
The CERS research rated Knorr Indian Soups Tomato Chatpata the best with the highest lycopene content of 10.2 mg per 100 gm followed by Knorr Indian Soup Tomato Makhani with 8.4 mg per 100 gm. Aarkay's Tomato Soup Powder (Jain) and Madhur Instant Real Tomato Soup Powder had only 0.4 mg lycopene in 100 gm and Aarkay's Hot Tomato soup powder only 0.5 mg per 100 gm.
According to UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), the permissible sodium content is 300 to 600 mg per 100 gm. The CERS research, however, found that all the 11 varieties were high on sodium, with the highest content of 7037 mg per 100 gm in Aarkay's Hot Tomato Soup Powder. The lowest sodium content of 1203 mg was in MTR Spicy Tomato Rasam Style soup.
All the six brands had higher sugar content than the UK FSA's guidelines of 15 gm per 100 gm. Madhur Instant Real Tomato Soup Powder had 25.9 gm in 100 gm, followed by Maggi Healthy Soup Rich Tomato which had 19.6 gm in 100 gm.
Madhur Instant Real Tomato Soup Powder was also found flouting labelling requirements of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rule 32. It was found that the different brands mention different serving sizes on their lables.