Pink Sauce is a culinary sauce founded by an influencer named Veronica Shaw who goes by Chef Pii. She became TikTok famous before facing controversy over food safety concerns. But just last year, the viral pink seasoning sauce was FDA approved and is now sold in-store at Walmart.

But what’s actually in Pink Sauce and is it bad for you? Does it have any questionable preservative ingredients that now make it shelf-stable? Is it really worth $20 per bottle? And how do real users rate and describe the taste of Pink Sauce?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Pink Sauce to give our take on whether it's healthy or not.

We’ll compare it to other seasoning sauces, share customer reviews of the brand, and feature a video showing how to make Pink Sauce at home.

Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in Pink Sauce are shown above.

This ingredient list was sourced from Walmart's website at the time of initially publishing this article, but at the time of updating this article, the ingredient list isn't available on Walmart or the brand's website.

Dragon fruit is what gives Pink Sauce its distinct color, and this is a rich source of phytochemicals that most Americans don’t typically consume.

A medical review published in the Journal of Food Biochemistry described dragon fruit as a “wonder fruit” due to its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer and antidiabetic effects.

Coconut cream is another healthy, whole food ingredient in Pink Sauce.

It was shown in a clinical trial to improve cholesterol levels in healthy adults.

Unfortunately, while there are some healthy, whole food ingredients in Pink Sauce, there are also some ingredients that health-conscious consumers may wish to avoid.

Added sugar when consumed in excess is clinically shown to be associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

While there are only two grams (g) of added sugar in Pink Sauce, many Americans already consume too much sugar in their diet.

Maltodextrin may cause intestinal distress when used as a food additive according to a 2019 medical review.

Natural flavors and spices are broad categorical descriptors which fail to describe the specific flavoring agents used.

As we referenced in our review of Smart Sweets candy, some clinical studies suggest that certain natural flavors and their metabolites are toxic.

Titanium dioxide is a colorant that’s banned in the EU for use as a food additive due to toxicity concerns.

Sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, citric acid and calcium disodium ETDA are all preservative ingredients.

While the inclusion of these ingredients likely helped get Pink Sauce approved by the FDA, it seems illogical in our opinion to use a seasoning sauce with so many preservatives when there are sauces on the market with none.

Overall, we do not consider Pink Sauce to be healthy, and we believe there are much better options, especially at the high price point.

What's the Controversy About?

It’s uncommon for a seasoning sauce brand to be surrounded by so much controversy, but for consumers who want the full backstory on Pink Sauce, it’s an interesting one.

A YouTube creator named “Tea Spill” reviews the whole backstory in a highly entertaining video that covers everything from the missing ingredients lists at the inception of the company, a lack of temperature control before shipping, and even the founder of the company disrespecting a customer on live TV:

Real People Try Pink Sauce

A YouTube user named “Tay Eats” tried Pink Sauce and gave an honest review:

A popular TikTok creator named “NoahGlennCarter” had a negative experience with Pink Sauce:

@noahglenncarter My pink sauce review #pinksauce #review #foryou ♬ All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

Make Healthy Pink Sauce at Home

Since dragon fruit is nutritious, healthy and tastes great, people wanting to try pink sauce may want to try making it at home using a recipe with whole food ingredients.

This video from a YouTube creator named “LookCatchu” shows you how:

Our Clean Seasoning Sauce Pick

Primal Kitchen Organic Sauce is our top healthy seasoning sauce pick.

The sauces contain nutritious, whole food ingredients like organic apple cider vinegar, organic dijon mustard and organic onion powder, and these products are free of added sugar, free of preservatives and free of titanium dioxide. 

Primal Kitchen’s sauces are also cheaper than Pink Sauce, costing $6.84 per bottle.

Pink Sauce Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons of Pink Sauce in our opinion:

Pros:

• Dragonfruit-based
• Approved by the FDA
• Available at Walmart

Cons:

• Contains refined, added sugar
• Contains titanium dioxide
• Contains four separate preservatives
• Contains maltodextrin
• Contains natural flavors
• Highly expensive
• Alleged ingredient safety issues upon initial launch

Conclusion

Pink Sauce contains some natural ingredients which give it its distinct color.

However, this sauce brand contains a wide variety of questionable additive ingredients, from colorants banned in the EU over toxicity concerns, to four separate preservatives, to refined sugar and more.

We do not currently recommend Pink Sauce and we do not consider it to be healthy.

There’s a significant amount of controversy online around Pink Sauce, and most of it stems from the fact that there were allegedly lax safety guidelines when the company first started.

The fact that Chef Pii has since partnered with a bigger brand and gotten her products FDA-approved and in Walmart suggests that safety concerns in the future are unlikely.

We believe there are healthier seasoning sauce options on the market at a better price point than Pink Sauce, and for consumers who are really curious about Pink Sauce, you can make it at home without preservatives by following a recipe shared in a YouTube video in this article.