I have been thinking about buying barbecue sauce to use as a condiment (to use as a dipping sauce). A local store has many different brands, such as Jack Daniels and others.
Is it safe to consume this sort of pre-made barbecue sauces uncooked (similar to e.g. ketchup or mustard)?
(None of the bottles say that the sauce needs to be heated up before consumption but I thought that I better ask here.)
Best Answer
Unless there is local regulation that requires labelling of items unsafe for raw consumption, the only 100% sure way would be to ask the manufacturer.
However, a non-perishable sauce being unsafe without being boiled, but safe if doing so (just reheating will not matter much anyway!), would be an odd enough ingredient that you could expect a warning on the label. If there was a severe risk of microbial problems, that would either spoil the sauce right in the bottle, or make it unsafe in a way that heat will not fix.
Non-perishable but unsafe raw is more typical of DRY goods, since they can perfectly well harbor spores or small amount of bacteria without actively spoiling.