Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Aldi 6 Vegetable Bao Buns ultra-processed?

270g Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Aldi 6 Vegetable Bao Buns

Yes, it's ultra-processed

  1. 1 Unprocessed
  2. 2 Kitchen staple
  3. 3 Processed
  4. 4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

  • 44 ingredients
  • 8 additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

vegetables 36% (Cauliflower, Green Bell Pepper, Red Bell Pepper), Wheat Flour, Water, Sugar, Fully Refined Soybean Oil, Corn Starch, Wheat Gluten, Garlic Purée, Salt, Modified Tapioca Starch, Fructose Syrup, Yeast, Yeast Extract, Maltose Syrup, Rice Vinegar, Soy Bean Paste (Water, Wheat Flour, Soybeans, Salt), Garlic, Soy Sauce (Water, Soybeans, Wheat Flour, Salt), Colours (Plain Caramel), Paprika Extract, Raising Agents (Diphosphates), Sodium Carbonates, Tomato, Chilli, Tapioca Starch, Acidity Regulators (Calcium Carbonate), Citric Acid, Thickener (Xanthan Gum), Cinnamon Powder

Additives: E150a Plain caramel , E160c Paprika extract , E170 Calcium carbonates , E170i Calcium carbonate , E330 Citric acid , E415 Xanthan gum , E450 Diphosphates , E500 Sodium carbonates

As written on the pack

VEGETABLES (36%) (Cauliflower, Green Bell Pepper, Red Bell Pepper), Wheat Flour, Water, Sugar, Fully Refined Soybean Oil, Corn Starch, Wheat Gluten, Garlic Purée, Salt, Modified Tapioca Starch, Fructose Syrup, Yeast, Yeast Extract, Maltose Syrup, Rice Vinegar, Soy Bean Paste (Water, Wheat Flour, Soybeans, Salt), Garlic Powder, Soy Sauce (Water, Soybeans, Wheat Flour, Salt), Colours: Plain Caramel, Paprika Extract; Raising Agents: Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates; Tomato Powder, Chilli Powder, Tapioca Starch, Acidity Regulators: Calcium Carbonate, Citric Acid; Thickener: Xanthan Gum; Cinnamon Powder.

What makes it ultra-processed

Cosmetic additives

Added to change how the food looks, feels or tastes, not to keep it safe. A hallmark of ultra-processed food.

  • E150a Plain caramel Plain caramel is a brown colour made by heating sugars.
  • E160c Paprika extract Paprika extract is a red-orange colour extracted from paprika peppers.
  • E170 Calcium carbonates Calcium carbonate is chalk.
  • E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
  • E450 Diphosphates Diphosphates are phosphate salts used as raising agents in baking powder, and to hold water in processed meats and cheese.
  • Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.
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  • Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.
  • Modified starch Modified starch is starch altered physically, with enzymes or chemically, so that it thickens, gels or survives freezing and heating better than ordinary starch.

Substances rarely used in home kitchens

Refined or extracted in factories, such as syrups made from starch or isolated proteins. The other hallmark of ultra-processed food.

  • Gluten Wheat gluten, sold as "vital wheat gluten", is the protein washed out of wheat flour.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
5 ingredients that would only make it processed

Kitchen staples like sugar, salt and oil. On their own they make a food processed, not ultra-processed.

  • Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.
  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Sauce A prepared sauce used as an ingredient.

How the NOVA groups work

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 4061464643697, last edited 27 March 2026), available under the Open Database License. If something is wrong or the recipe has changed, you can correct it there.
  • Photo: Open Food Facts contributors, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • The NOVA group is an automated estimate from crowdsourced data: a missing or mistyped ingredient can change it.
  • NOVA measures processing, not nutrition. For nutrition, Open Food Facts gives this product a Nutri-Score of C (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.