Is it ultra-processed?
Menu

Is Chex Mix Cheddar ultra-processed?

Sold in the United States

Pack of Chex Mix Cheddar

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:

  • 49 ingredients
  • 11 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Degermed Yellow Corn Meal, Whole Wheat, Flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Vegetable Oil (soybean, palm, high oleic soybean and high oleic canola), Sugar, Contains 2% and less of (Salt), Whey, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sour Cream (cultures, nonfat milk, cream), Yeast, Yeast Extract, Baking Soda, Onion, Cheddar Cheese (milk, salt, cultures, enzymes, annatto (for color)), Distilled Monoglycerides, Color (annatto, yellow 6, yellow 5 lake), Sodium Sulfite, Yellow Corn Flour, Trisodium Phosphate, Malted Barley Extract, Barley Malt Syrup, Calcium Carbonate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid, Freshness Preserved by BHT, tbhq, mk ingredients

Additives: E102 Tartrazine , E110 Sunset yellow FCF , E170 Calcium carbonates , E170i Calcium carbonate , E221 Sodium sulphite , E319 Tertiary-butylhydroquinone (tbhq) , E330 Citric acid , E339 Sodium phosphates , E339iii Trisodium phosphate , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate

As written on the pack

Degermed Yellow Corn Meal, Whole Wheat, Enriched Flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Vegetable Oil (soybean, palm, high oleic soybean and/or high oleic canola), Sugar. Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Whey, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sour Cream (cultures, nonfat milk, cream), Yeast, Yeast Extract, Baking Soda, Onion Powder, Cheddar Cheese (milk, salt, cultures, enzymes, annatto extract [for color]), Distilled Monoglycerides, Color (annatto extract, yellow 6, yellow 5 lake), Sodium Sulfite, Yellow Corn Flour, Trisodium Phosphate, Malted Barley Extract, Barley Malt Syrup, Calcium Carbonate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Citric Acid. Freshness Preserved by BHT and TBHQ. CONTAINS WHEAT AND MK INGREDIENTS.

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.

  • E102 Tartrazine Tartrazine is a synthetic yellow azo dye (FD&C Yellow No. 5 in the US).
  • E110 Sunset yellow FCF Sunset yellow FCF is a synthetic orange azo dye (FD&C Yellow No. 6 in the US).
  • E170 Calcium carbonates Calcium carbonate is chalk.
  • 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.

  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • High fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch: enzymes break it down to glucose and convert part of that into fructose, giving a syrup about as sweet as table sugar.
  • Whey Whey is the liquid left over from cheese making, usually dried into a powder and used as a cheap source of milk solids, protein and lactose.
  • 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.

  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
  • Cheese Cheese is milk preserved with salt, cultures and rennet.

How the NOVA groups work

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0016000215559, last edited 30 April 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.