Dr. Maya Rosman ranks: These are the worst store-bought salads there are

Although they are all sold in the same refrigerator in the supermarket and are called “salads”, in practice this is a very diverse group of products. Some are closer to a fatty spread, some to a cooked vegetable side dish, and some are actually a good vegetable that has been loaded with a lot of mayonnaise, oil, sugar and salt.

There is almost no logic in talking about “store-bought salads” as one unit: Hummus, tahini, matbucha, eggplant in mayonnaise and red cabbage in mayonnaise are very different from each other in calorie value, fat composition, fiber amount, salt content and health contribution.

And one more thing to note: In many store-bought products, potassium sorbate repeatedly appears as a preservative, citric acid as an acidity regulator, and sometimes stabilizers such as xanthan gum or guar gum. These substances are intended to extend shelf life and maintain stability and texture, some of them (not all) are problematic for health – but in many cases the bigger nutritional problem is דווקא excess salt, oil, sugar, or a relatively low percentage of the original ingredient.

Let’s go salad by salad and examine the nutritional value:

Provides unsaturated fat, minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron, as well as plant compounds such as lignans and phytosterols. A 2024 review in the Journal of Atherosclerosis Prevention and Treatment described tahini as a food rich in quality fatty acids, polyphenols and minerals, and even among people with type 2 diabetes, adding tahini for six weeks was associated with a reduction in triglycerides and improvement in some markers.

A comprehensive review in Nutrients found that consuming hummus and chickpeas contributes to satiety, and to better control of blood sugar and lipid markers compared to less successful snacks or spreads.

In many store-bought hummus products, hummus and tahini do appear, but also acidity regulators, salt, sometimes vegetable oils, and sometimes a preservative such as potassium sorbate.

That is, it can still be a more successful salad than most mayonnaise salads, but it is not always “like homemade hummus”.

The problem begins when the store-bought product gets too much soybean or canola oil, too much sugar, and a lot of salt. In store-bought matbucha that were examined, potassium sorbate appeared as a preservative, and sometimes also xanthan gum and citric acid.

One tablespoon contains only about 20 calories.

Eggplant salads are perhaps the most confusing category on the shelf, because under the same name hide completely different products.

Simple roasted eggplant, or “grilled eggplant”, can be a not bad choice at all: Eggplant is a relatively low-calorie vegetable, rich in fiber and antioxidant compounds, and in mayonnaise versions you already get a completely different product, whose nutritional value mostly comes from the mayonnaise rather than the eggplant.

Therefore, among the three options, roasted eggplant or eggplant in tahini or in mayonnaise – the simple one is usually the better choice, eggplant in tahini can be reasonable if the ingredient list is relatively clean, and eggplant in mayonnaise is usually the less good option:

Red cabbage is an excellent raw ingredient. It belongs to the cruciferous family, contains dietary fiber, vitamin C and purple pigment compounds from the anthocyanin family that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. But all this is true for the cabbage itself. Once the red cabbage is swimming in mayonnaise, much of the advantage remains in the background.

In store-bought products that were examined, purple cabbage made up about 67% of the product, while the rest came from mayonnaise, water, sugar, salt, stabilizers and preservative.

That is, there is still a real vegetable here, but wrapped in fat, sugar and sodium. In simple words: It is much less healthy than the impressive purple color suggests.

Anyone who likes red cabbage is better off making such a salad at home, or looking for a simpler version, with less mayonnaise and less sugar. And if you do buy, it is worth remembering that this is more of a rich spread with cabbage rather than a light vegetable salad.