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Food and dish guide

Pesto: allergens and what’s inside

Of 694 packs of pesto whose ingredients Open Food Facts reads in full, 69% list tree nuts and 59% list milk. Another 15% carry a “may contain” line for peanuts. Most list salt, basil and sunflower oil.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 3 sourcesHow we check

Not for you

for a tree nut allergy profile, on 69% of these packs

Which allergens are in pesto?

Of 694 packs of pesto whose ingredient list Open Food Facts reads in full, 69% list tree nuts, 59% list milk, 23% list egg and 11% list soy. Another 15% carry a “may contain” line for peanuts, 13% for celery and 9% for fish. Recipes differ from pack to pack, so the label in your hand is the one that counts.

Tree nut allergyNot for you69% list tree nuts; 5% more carry a “may contain” line for them.
Milk allergyNot for you59% list milk; 3% more carry a “may contain” line for it.
Egg allergyHeads up23% list egg; 6% more carry a “may contain” line for it.
Soy allergyHeads up11% list soy; 9% more carry a “may contain” line for it.
Fish allergyHeads up6% list fish; 9% more carry a “may contain” line for it.
Celery allergyHeads up5% list celery; 13% more carry a “may contain” line for it.

Not for you when most of these packs list the allergen, Heads up when fewer do or only a “may contain” line names it. In the app, a profile gets Not for you on a pack that lists the allergen and Heads up on one whose “may contain” line names it: it reads the pack in your hand, not these counts.

Read the tree nuts guide · Read the milk guide · Read the eggs guide

What is pesto usually made of?

The ingredients most packs of pesto list, with the share of packs that list each: salt (97%), basil (79%), sunflower oil (72%) and garlic (68%).

Packs in Open Food Facts, by country of sale: France 1,475 · Italy 891 · Germany 687 · United Kingdom 225.

Counted on 13 October 2026 from the Open Food Facts product database, which volunteers fill from real packs: it shows what these packs list, not every recipe for pesto.

Calories and nutrients

Not shown here. Open Food Facts records calories and nutrients per 100 g or per 100 ml without saying which, so a figure for all these packs together could mislead. The pack you buy prints its own, and that is the figure to log.

What kind of food is pesto?

In the Open Food Facts categories, pesto is a kind of sauce.

Kinds of pestoGreen pestoRed pesto

What else is pesto called?

In EnglishPesto sauces
French
Sauces Pesto, Sauce pesto
German
Pestos, Pesto Saucen
Spanish
Pestos, Salsas Pesto
Dutch
Pestosauzen
Danish
Pestoer

Bravoora reads every pack for everyone you shop for: an allergy or intolerance, a vegan or vegetarian diet, a calorie or protein goal, and the labels on supplements and skincare too. Build a profile · For dietitians, doctors and trainers

Sources

Every share is counted over the packs whose ingredient list Open Food Facts reads in full. A pack lists an allergen when Open Food Facts’ allergen field names it, or when one of its ingredients stands for it by the same two-of-three checks as the ingredient dictionary (tahini is sesame, a cheese is milk). A “may contain” line counts only for an allergen the pack does not list.

  1. Open Food Facts: product database, 4,535,553 products, read 13 October 2026, ODbL
  2. Open Food Facts: categories and ingredients taxonomies (names, kinds, allergens), ODbL
  3. Open Food Facts: Pesto

Contains information from Open Food Facts, which is made available here under the Open Database License (ODbL). Read the licence · Download this guide’s data · How we check

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