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Is Bramwells Skeeter's Original BBQ Sauce ultra-processed?

350ml Barbecue sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Bramwells Skeeter's Original BBQ 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:

  • 37 ingredients
  • 5 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed barbecue 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, tomato paste, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, molasses, spirit vinegar, dextrose, modified maize starch, mustard (water, mustard seed, spirit vinegar, stabilisers (xanthan gum), guar gum, turmeric powder, acidity regulator (citric acid)), salt, maltodextrin, onion, garlic, rapeseed oil, colour (ammonia caramel), black pepper, paprika powder, preservative (sorbic acid), smoke flavouring, acidity regulator (citric acid), cayenne pepper, stabiliser (xanthan gum), cinnamon, clove

Additives: E150c Ammonia caramel , E200 Sorbic acid , E330 Citric acid , E412 Guar gum , E415 Xanthan gum

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

As written on the pack

water, tomato paste, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, molasses, spirit vinegar, smoked dextrose, modified maize starch, mustard (water, mustard seed, spirit vinegar, stabilisers: xanthan gum, guar gum, turmeric powder, acidity regulator: citric acid), salt, smoked maltodextrin, onion powder, garlic powder, rapeseed oil, colour: ammonia caramel, black pepper, paprika powder, preservative: sorbic acid, smoke flavouring, acidity regulator: citric acid , cayenne pepper, stabiliser: xanthan gum, cinnamon, ground clove,

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.
  • E412 Guar gum Guar gum is a thickener ground from the seeds of the guar plant.
  • E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Maltodextrin Maltodextrin is a white powder made by partly breaking down starch.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
4 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.

  • Preservative Preservatives slow spoilage by microbes.
  • 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 107 barbecue sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 107th. 86% of the barbecue 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 107 barbecue sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 4088600158518, last edited 5 May 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 E (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.