Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Birds Eye Crispy tempura chicken ultra-processed?

Chickens Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Birds Eye Crispy tempura chicken

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:

  • 24 ingredients
  • 6 additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Less processed chickens

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, Flour (wheat, Maize), Water, Rapeseed Oil, Starch (wheat, Maize), Salt, Palm Oil, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates), Natural Flavouring, Spices, Colour (Curcumin), Dextrose, Natural Pepper Flavouring, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin

Additives: E100 Curcumin , E170 Calcium carbonates , E170i Calcium carbonate , E450 Diphosphates , E450i Disodium diphosphate , E500 Sodium carbonates

As written on the pack

Chicken Breast, Flour (WHEAT, Maize), Water, Rapeseed Oil, Starch (WHEAT, Maize), Salt, Palm Oil, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates), Natural Flavouring, Spices, Colour (Curcumin), Dextrose, Natural Pepper Flavouring, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin

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.

  • E100 Curcumin Colours are substances which add or restore colour in a food, and include natural constituents of foods and natural sources which are normally not consumed as foods as such and not normally used as characteristic ingredients of food.
  • E170 Calcium carbonates Calcium carbonate is chalk.
  • 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.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.

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.
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.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 356 chickens

From least to most processed, this one ranks 341st. 74% of the chickens 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 356 chickens, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000116125241, 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.