All-Purpose Seasoning: What the Label Means, What’s in the Jar, and How Much Salt It Carries

Pick up two jars labeled “all-purpose seasoning” and one may have no salt at all while the other is mostly salt. The name is a marketing label, not a defined product: it turns up on salt-free herb-and-vegetable blends, on salt-led garlic blends like Goya’s adobo, and, in everyday speech, on seasoned salt and soy-based liquids. What they share is a savory base of onion, garlic and pepper. What splits them is salt: per quarter teaspoon, the blends here run from none to 520 mg of sodium.

At a glance

What is in the jar

US labels list ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, so the first ingredient is the biggest.⁴

Two patterns jump out. The salt-free blends lead with onion and have long herb lists; the salted ones lead with salt and have few herbs. The federal purchasing specification’s “salt-free seasoning with herbs and citrus” lists onion, black pepper, parsley, celery seed, basil, bay leaves, marjoram, oregano, savory, thyme and more, along with garlic, carrot, citrus peel, tomato and citric acid,¹ which reads a lot like the Dash label above.

Seasoned salt, adobo and liquid “aminos”

• Seasoned salt is salt with spices, sugar and onion. Lawry’s is labeled “Seasoned Salt,” not all-purpose. See seasoned salt.
• Adobo is sold by Goya under the name “All-Purpose Seasoning.” TASTE dates Goya’s adobo to 1966.⁷ See adobo seasoning.
• Bragg Liquid Aminos is made from soybeans and water, and Bragg sells it as a gluten-free soy sauce alternative. It’s not salt-free: a teaspoon carries 310 mg of sodium (13% DV).⁸ Kikkoman soy sauce lists 960 mg per tablespoon, about 320 mg per teaspoon.⁹ Per teaspoon, the two are close.

Other blends people use the same way, like Cajun seasoning, Creole seasoning, lemon pepper and Greek seasoning, have their own pages.

Flavor

Salted all-purpose blends taste mostly of salt, garlic and onion. Salt-free ones taste of onion, garlic, celery seed and dried herbs, often with a citrus or tomato edge when lemon peel or tomato is on the label. For the compounds behind each ingredient, see onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper and celery salt.

How to use it

Goya suggests a shake of its blend before cooking meat, chicken, fish and vegetables. Cooks also use all-purpose blends in dry rubs, on vegetables before roasting, in burger and meatloaf mixes, on eggs and potatoes, and in soups.

The label tells you how to season. With a salted blend, the blend is your salt: season with it first and taste before adding more. With a salt-free blend, add salt separately to taste.

Buying

• Find salt on the ingredient list. If it’s first, the blend is mostly a salt product.
• Compare sodium per serving. On the labels above it runs from 0 to 520 mg per quarter teaspoon.
• Check for sugar and starch. Lawry’s lists sugar second and also has corn starch.

Storage

We didn’t find a shelf life for all-purpose seasonings from any regulator or standards body. Keep jars closed and away from heat, light and stovetop steam. If a pinch rubbed between your fingers smells faint, the blend has faded.

Salt and health

FDA’s Daily Value for sodium is less than 2,300 mg a day,¹⁰ and the World Health Organization recommends adults have less than 2,000 mg of sodium a day.¹¹ At 520 mg per quarter teaspoon, a full teaspoon of Goya’s adobo (4 × 520 mg = 2,080 mg) is over the WHO figure all by itself.³ Salt-free blends such as Dash Original list 0 mg per serving.

You’ll see claims that all-purpose seasonings help prevent obesity, or that they’re healthful because they’re low in fat and carbohydrate. We couldn’t trace either to any study, and we’re not making them.

Substitutes and comparisons

• All-purpose seasoning substitutes
• Seasoned salt and seasoned salt substitutes
• Adobo seasoning and sazón seasoning
• Italian seasoning, herbes de Provence and Old Bay seasoning
• MSG vs. salt and table salt