TOMATO sauce is good for you and that's official. Well, sort of... Tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant lycopene, which is what makes them red, and which protects against heart disease and prostate cancer - so especially good for men. It works best when tomatoes are cooked, so tomato sauce is an ideal way of eating it.

The trouble is, according to the British Tomato Growers' Association, that you would have to eat the equivalent of a bottle of sauce a day - which includes all the sugar and salt that also goes into ketchup.

So they say, the best way to get your recommended dose of lycopene is to eat six raw tomatoes - which saves the salt and sugar but which gives vitamins C and E as well.

Maybe, just to be on the safe side, you should eat your six tomatoes seasoned with tomato sauce...

OUR FAVOURITES

HEINZ ORGANIC, £1.26 for 460g

176g tomatoes per 100g ketchup.

Spicy and tomatoey, although a bit salty for some. Was recognised as Heinz but see below...

SAINSBURYS ITALIAN KETCHUP

56p for 340g

75 per cent tomatoes. A distinctive taste, very different from the others. Sweet and spicy and - unusually - actually tasted of fresh tomatoes.

MORRISONS, 79p for 445g

185g of tomatoes per 100g of sauce. Made with lots of tomatoes and tasted like it.

FINE ON YOUR CHIPS

HEINZ, made with 126g tomatoes to 100g sauce.

The brand leader, the one we think of and yet, in blind tastings it wasn't a favourite. Distinctive spicy flavour but not very tomatoey. Not as popular as its organic version.

SAINSBURYS ORGANIC TOMATO KETCHUP, £1.09 for 300g

Says it's organic but also includes permitted non-organic starch, salt and stabilisers. Was a bit bland.

CO-OP 63p, made with 169g of tomatoes per 100g,

A bit solid and with a slightly strange taste, but OK.

MARKS AND SPENCER, 89p for 490g, made with 160g tomatoes per 100g sauce.

Was, like so many Marks and Spencer products, very sweet.

TESCO, 74p for 485g, Made with 123g tomatoes per 100g ketchup.

Very vinegary.

WE DIDN'T PARTICULARY LIKE

ALDI, 49p for 500g, made with 57 per cent tomato puree.

Solid and salty

DADDIES, £1.14 for 685g, made with 101g tomatoes per 100g sauce.

Boasts of added vitamins but has one of the lowest tomato contents and greatest sugar and glucose syrup. It was also very vinegary.

The word ketchup is derived from the Chinese ke-tsiap, a pickled fish sauce. English sailors in the 17th century brought it west and it was first mentioned in print in 1690. In those days it was still more like soy sauce.

Then someone added tomatoes to it and it became much thicker and it was also known as catsup, catch-up and tomato soy. Heinz began making tomato ketchup in 1876.

Squeezy bottles are taking over and they are much easier to use. But shelf life is longer in glass so you have to decide which is your priority.

TRIED AND TASTED: MARKS & SPENCER ROAST IN THE BAG CHICKEN

£3.99 for a 950g bird Ready in 25 minutes

SO this is what you do... You take your chicken home. It is in two bags. You take the outer one off and leave the inner one on. You put it in the oven for 25 minutes. You take it out, take the bag off, and eat the chicken.

Talk about easy...

We have tried roast in the bag chickens before and weren't very impressed, generally because they were fairly tasteless.

Then they seemed to disappear from the shelves which made me start to think that no one else was very impressed either.

However, this was very easy and was actually very tasty with a decent flavour - and with no messy roasting pan to clean.

There were also, of course no juices with which to make gravy. But this is a nice way of cooking a chicken that you wish to serve cold or with new potatoes and butter or lemon summer veg.

Pricey, but occasionally worth it, especially after a long hard day at the office.