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Soups, Sauces, and GraviesPlate 1499 of 1799

Calories in
sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve

29 kcal per 100 g Sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve contains 29 calories per 100 grams, or about 10 calories per 2 tbsp. Per 100 g it provides 1.5 g protein, 6.6 g carbohydrate and 0.2 g fat.

By calories that splits 78% carbohydrate, 18% protein, 4% fat — dissected below.

SOURCE·USDA SR Legacy·FDC 174524·REVIEWED JUL 2026

Energy anatomy — per 100 g Plate 1499 of 1799
18%78% 0 7 15 22 29 kcal
Protein 1.5 g × 4 kcal/g 6 kcal · 18%
Carbohydrate 6.6 g × 4 kcal/g 27 kcal · 78%
Fat 0.2 g × 9 kcal/g 2 kcal · 4%
Shorthand total Atwater 4 · 4 · 9 34 kcal
As published by USDA food-specific factors 29 kcal

The 4·4·9 shorthand adds to 34 kcal; USDA publishes 29 kcal+5 kcal, 17.2% apart. That gap is expected, not an error: USDA derives energy with food-specific factors and, for many items, discounts the fibre that the shorthand still counts at four. The published figure is the better one, so the axis above is scaled to it and the shares are what the shorthand is genuinely good at.

SourceUSDA FoodData Central, SR LegacyFDC 174524retrieved 2026-07

Per 100 g29kcal
Per 2 tbsp10kcal · 36.0 g
Protein1.5g per 100 g
Walk it off2minutes walking
Proteingrams
Carbsgrams
Fatgrams
Walk it offmin at 70 kg

How this is worked out

  1. USDA measures every nutrient per 100 g of edible portion. That row is published here unchanged — nothing is rounded up, smoothed or "adjusted".
  2. The energy figure is USDA's own, derived with food-specific factors. This site never computes the calorie count it publishes.
  3. The Atwater shorthand 4 · 4 · 9 is applied to the protein, carbohydrate and fat grams only to split that energy into shares — and where the shorthand disagrees with the published figure, the gap is printed rather than hidden.
  4. A serving is a straight proportional conversion of the per-100 g row, using USDA's own household measures for the grams.
  5. The walking figure uses MET 4.0 at 70 kg, the same equation the sister site publishes.
per serving   = per 100 g × serving grams ÷ 100
energy shares = 4·P + 4·C + 9·F      (P, C, F in grams)
walk minutes  = kcal ÷ (4.0 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200)

Full data & method →

Calories in a typical serving

Per-100 g figures are useful for comparison but nobody eats 100 g of anything on purpose. These are the USDA's own household measures.

ServingGramsCaloriesProteinCarbsFat
2 tbsp36.0 g 10 0.5 g2.4 g0.1 g
0.5 cup130.0 g 38 2.0 g8.6 g0.2 g
1 cup259.0 g 75 3.9 g17.2 g0.4 g

SOURCE·USDA SR Legacy·REVIEWED JUL 2026

Full nutrition, per 100 g and per 2 tbsp

NutrientPer 100 gPer 2 tbsp
Energy29 kcal10 kcal
Protein1.5 g0.5 g
Total fat0.2 g0.1 g
Saturated fat0.0 g0.0 g
Carbohydrate6.6 g2.4 g
Fibre1.9 g0.7 g
Sugars4.0 g1.4 g
Sodium711.0 mg256.0 mg
Potassium275.0 mg99.0 mg
Calcium30.0 mg10.8 mg
Iron0.4 mg0.2 mg
Vitamin C1.9 mg0.7 mg
Vitamin A23.0 µg8.3 µg
Cholesterol0.0 mg0.0 mg
Water89.3 g32.1 g

A dash means the nutrient was not measured for this item, which is not the same as zero.

SOURCE·USDA SR Legacy·FDC 174524·REVIEWED JUL 2026

How sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve compares

Among the 63 soups, sauces, and gravies items on this site, sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve ranks 56 of 63 by calorie density, against a category average of 169 kcal per 100 g — so it is about 83% less calorie-dense than typical for its group.

It carries 5.2 g of protein per 100 calories, a moderate protein contribution.

To burn off 2 tbsp (10 kcal), a 70 kg adult would walk for roughly 2 minutes — see the walking calculation on our sister site, or pick a different activity. Treat that as a sense of scale rather than a rule: eating and moving are not a simple ledger.

SOURCE·USDA SR Legacy·REVIEWED JUL 2026

A reference table describes the average sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve. Yours was grown somewhere, picked at some ripeness, and cooked by you.

Questions this entry settles

How many calories are in sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve?

Sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve contains 29 calories per 100 g, which works out to about 10 calories per 2 tbsp. It also provides 1.5 g of protein, 6.6 g of carbohydrate and 0.2 g of fat per 100 g.

What is the macro breakdown of sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve?

By calories, sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve is roughly 78% carbohydrate, 18% protein and 4% fat. That makes it a predominantly carbohydrate-based food.

How long does it take to burn off 2 tbsp?

About 2 minutes of ordinary walking for a 70 kg adult (MET 4.0). That is a rough guide for scale, not a prescription — appetite and activity interact in ways a simple subtraction does not capture.

Is this figure exact for the sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve I bought?

No. These are USDA reference values, averaged across samples. Real foods vary with variety, ripeness, growing conditions, cut, brand and how they were cooked — 10–20% either way is normal. Use them for planning, not precision.

Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy — public domain, reviewed JUL 2026. Full USDA description: "Sauce, salsa, ready-to-serve". General information only — not medical or nutrition advice. Values are averages for a food type and vary by brand, ripeness and preparation.

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Published by

Amit Sharma

Auckland real-estate agent and marketer. Builds free, sourced data tools.