Is Typical bottled Tartar Sauce low FODMAP?

Mostly yes, with a serving cap — the average bottled tartar sauce is built on safe ingredients but hides two dose-dependent flags. Heinz Premium Tartar Sauce, the benchmark US bottle, lists soybean oil, sweet relish (pickled cucumbers, sugar, vinegar), water, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, egg yolks, salt, modified corn starch, mustard flour, lemon juice, xanthan gum, onion powder, and spice. The mayo-style base — oil, egg yolk, vinegar — is FODMAP-free, and pickled cucumber relish is fine too, since the sugar in relish is plain sucrose. The flags are high fructose corn syrup, an excess-fructose source sitting mid-label, and onion powder, a concentrated fructan source near the end of the list. Both are present in small amounts per serving, which is why a level tablespoon alongside baked or fried fish lands in workable territory for many people, while ladling it on or dipping steadily through a whole fish fry stacks them up. A two-minute homemade version — mayonnaise, chopped dill pickles, capers, and lemon — removes both flags entirely and honestly tastes fresher than the bottle.

📏 A level tablespoon with fish is workable for many; generous dipping through a whole fish fry stacks the onion powder and HFCS.