Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Birds Eye shortcrust chicken pies ultra-processed?

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Pack of Birds Eye shortcrust chicken pies

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:

  • 34 ingredients
  • No additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

east and vegetables in gravy, bi our ingredients, wheat flour, water, chicken breast 20%, pork lard, carrots, peas, modified maize starch, chicken stock (water, chicken, salt), brown sugar, salt, glucose syrup, yeast extract, celery salt (salt, celery, celery seed oil), chicory fibre, calcium carbonate, fat reduced cocoa powder, barley malt extract, onion, black pepper, sage, niacin, iron, thiamin, for allergens see ingredients in capital letters, flavours, preservatives no 1 value sales in the frozen pies segment ni scantrack data latest 52 weeks to 24.04.21

As written on the pack

east and vegetables in gravy. bi our ingredients... wheat flour, water, chicken breast (20%), pork lard, carrots, peas, modified maize starch, chicken stock (water, chicken, salt), brown sugar, salt, glucose syrup, yeast extract, celery salt (salt, celery extract, celery seed oil), chicory fibre, calcium carbonate, fat reduced cocoa powder, barley malt extract, onion powder, black pepper, sage, niacin, iron, thiamin. for allergens see ingredients in capital letters. no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives no 1 value sales in the frozen pies segment ni scantrack data latest 52 weeks to 24.04.21

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.

  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • 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.

  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Glucose syrup Glucose syrup is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • 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.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000116055319, last edited 11 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.