This Jarred Marinara Sauce That's Been Around For Hundreds Of Years Is The Worst On Store Shelves

Going to the grocery store can be overwhelming with all the different brands to choose from for the same item. When you look at marinara sauce, there can be an entire wall of sauces waiting to be picked — which makes it hard to decide what's right for your pasta. However, out of all the marinara sauces on display, we've identified a clear loser: Ponti.

Although the company has been in business for 237 years, its marinara sauce leaves much to be desired. In fact, according to our own ranking of jarred marinara sauces, Ponti's sauce is lacking in both flavor and texture. The consistency is too watery to effectively coat the pasta, essentially ruining the experience before it ever leaves the fork. After all, nobody wants to have a pool of sauce at the bottom of their noodles.

When it comes to flavor, that thin, watery description carries over. It's described as bland, regardless of its relatively high sodium content, and has an artificial taste that doesn't align with the ingredients. Since there's nothing artificial in the jar, the citric acid could have something to do with that unpleasant flavor. Luckily, there are still plenty of ingredients you can add to upgrade your spaghetti sauce and save it from itself.

While its marinara sauce may be lacking in both taste and texture, Ponti as a company has been successful in its primary ventures for over two centuries. It started off selling vinegar in 1787, with its first factory opening in 1795. Since then, Ponti ran as a small, family-run business until around 2014, when it founded Ponti U.S.A. and Ponti France, expanding the company globally.

Ever since, it has sold a variety of products — including sauces and glazes — but its main focus remains on many different types of vinegar you can use in your cooking. It even has an in-depth system for classifying different types of vinegars based on maturation, must, and density. This way, customers can rest assured that each bottle is what they're looking for before they buy it.

Finally, Ponti is proudly a certified B Corp, meaning it has followed sustainable practices to leave a positive impact on the world at large. The four pillars of sustainability it aims to meet are focused on the people it works with, the environment, the sustainability of the product's lifespan, and product quality and safety. Beyond that, Ponti also conforms to the U.N.'s standards for sustainability, and was officially recognized in 2021 as the first Benefit Company specializing in vinegars. As such, it's surprising that their marinara sauce ranked at the bottom of our list — but it's clear that their vinegar products are held to a much higher standard.