Is Barbara's Puffins Cereal Original ultra-processed?

Breakfast cereals Sold in the United States

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

E150c Ammonia caramel

16 ingredients
3 additives
Nutri-Score C

Less processed breakfast cereals

Sprouted Rolled Oats One Degree Organic Foods 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1
Old Fashioned Oats Quaker Oats 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1
Quick 1-Minute Oats Quaker Oats 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1
Old Fashioned 100% Whole Grain Rolled Oats Quaker Oats 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1

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

Non-gmo corn flour, non-gmo corn bran, evaporated cane sugar, whole oat flour, unsulfured molasses, expeller pressed high oleic oil (canola, sunflower), sea salt (processing marker), baking soda, caramel color (from cane molasses (processing marker)), vitamin c (ascorbic acid), tocopherols (antioxidants to preserve freshness)

Additives: E150c Ammonia caramel , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate

Also detected, but not matched to one ingredient: E150c Ammonia caramel.

As written on the pack

Non-gmo corn flour, non-gmo corn bran, evaporated cane sugar, whole oat flour, unsulfured molasses, expeller pressed high oleic oil (canola and/or sunflower), sea salt, baking soda, caramel color (from cane molasses), vitamin c (ascorbic acid), tocopherols (antioxidants to preserve freshness).

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.

E150c Ammonia caramel Ammonia caramel is a brown colour made by heating sugars with ammonia compounds.

2 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.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 1,869 breakfast cereals

From least to most processed, this one ranks 1185th. 60% of the breakfast cereals 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 1,869 breakfast cereals, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0070617206096, last edited 8 April 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.