Is Charlie Bingham's butter chicken curry & pilau rice ultra-processed?

812g Butter chicken Sold in the United Kingdom

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Colour
E160c Paprika extract

36 ingredients
1 additive
Nutri-Score C

Less processed butter chicken

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

Cooked rice (water, rice), chicken 19%, tomatoes, cream, onions, butter (processing marker), milk, rapeseed oil, ginger, honey (processing marker), lemon juice, cornflour, garlic purée, salt (processing marker), tomato purée, parsley, coriander, coriander, red pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, yellow mustard seeds, fenugreek, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, bay leaves, coriander seeds, ground cloves, black pepper, dill, ground ginger, colour (ultra-processing marker) (paprika extract (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E160c Paprika extract

As written on the pack

Cooked rice (water, rice), chicken (19%), tomatoes, cream (milk), onions, butter (milk), milk, rapeseed oil, ginger purée, honey, lemon juice, cornflour, garlic purée, salt, tomato purée, parsley, coriander, ground coriander, red pepper flakes, ground cumin, smoked paprika, yellow mustard seeds, fenugreek, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground turmeric, ground bay leaves, coriander seeds, ground cloves, black pepper, ground dill, ground ginger, colour: 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.
Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.

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.

Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.
Butter Butter, the fat churned from cream.
Honey Honey, used as a sweetener.
Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 10 butter chicken

From least to most processed, this one ranks 7th. 50% of the butter chicken 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 10 butter chicken, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5033665214364, last edited 1 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 C (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.