Is it ultra-processed?
Menu

Is Aldi Southan fried chicken goujons ultra-processed?

320g Chicken nuggets Sold in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland

Pack of Aldi Southan fried chicken goujons

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:

  • 35 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Less processed chicken nuggets

Less processed isn't automatically healthier, so compare the labels for what matters to you, such as sugar or salt.

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

chicken breast 56%, Wheat Flour, Rapeseed Oil, Water, Modified Maize Starch, Maize Flour, Salt, Pea Fibre, Tapioca Starch, Dextrose, Skimmed Milk Powder, Black Pepper, Wheat Starch, Yeast Extract, Flavourings, Maize Starch, Raising Agents (Diphosphates), Sodium Cartoonates (Wheat Gluten), Dried Onion, Dried Garlic, Paprika Extract, Aniseed, Yeast, White Pepper, Fennel, Onion, Celery, Thickener, Guar Gum, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Acid (Citric Acid)

Additives: E160c Paprika extract , E330 Citric acid , E412 Guar gum , E450 Diphosphates

As written on the pack

CHICKEN BREAST (56%), Wheat Flour, Rapeseed Oil, Water, Modified Maize Starch, Maize Flour, Salt, Pea Fibre, Tapioca Starch, Dextrose, Skimmed Milk Powder, Black Pepper, Wheat Starch, Yeast Extract, Flavourings, Maize Starch, Raising Agents: Diphosphates, Sodium Cartoonates: Wheat Gluten, Dried Onion, Dried Garlic, Paprika Extract, Aniseed, Yeast, White Pepper, Fennel, Onion Powder, Celery, Thickener. Guar Gum; Acidity Regulator: Citric Acid; Acid: Citric Acid.

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.

  • E160c Paprika extract Paprika extract is a red-orange colour extracted from paprika peppers.
  • E412 Guar gum Guar gum is a thickener ground from the seeds of the guar plant.
  • E450 Diphosphates Diphosphates are phosphate salts used as raising agents in baking powder, and to hold water in processed meats and cheese.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • 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.

  • Dextrose Dextrose is pure glucose crystallised from starch-derived syrup.
  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Gluten Wheat gluten, sold as "vital wheat gluten", is the protein washed out of wheat flour.
  • Vegetable fiber Isolated plant fibres, such as inulin, oat fibre or bamboo fibre, are extracted industrially and added to change texture or support "source of fibre" claims.
3 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.

  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
  • Milk powder Milk powder is milk with the water evaporated off: a preserved form of a whole food rather than an industrial extract.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 53 chicken nuggets

From least to most processed, this one ranks 53rd. 87% of the chicken nuggets here are ultra-processed.

Ranked by NOVA group, then by the number of ultra-processing signs, additives and ingredients. Our ordering, not part of NOVA.

All 53 chicken nuggets, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 4088600245584, 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.