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Is Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli & Garlic stir fry sauce ultra-processed?

120 g Sweet chili sauces Sold in the United Kingdom and France

Pack of Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli & Garlic stir fry sauce

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:

  • 16 ingredients
  • 2 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed sweet chili sauces

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

water, sugar, white rice vinegar 6%, glucose-fructose syrup, modified maize starch, red chilli paste 3.5% (red chilli peppers, salt, acetic acid), garlic purée 3%, ginger, tomato paste, rapeseed oil, salt, chilli, paprika extract

Additives: E160c Paprika extract , E260 Acetic acid

As written on the pack

water, sugar, white rice vinegar (6%), glucose-fructose syrup, modified maize starch, red chilli paste (3,5%) [red chilli peppers, salt, acidity regulator (acetic acid)], garlic purée (3%), ginger purée, concentrated tomato paste, rapeseed oil, salt, chilli flakes, paprika extract

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.
  • 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.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
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

Among 15 sweet chili sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 13th. 87% of the sweet chili sauces 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 15 sweet chili sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5010338200084, last edited 22 August 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 D (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.