Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Chips Ahoy! Chewy ultra-processed?

552g Chocolate chip cookies Sold in the United States

Pack of Chips Ahoy! Chewy

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:

  • 27 ingredients
  • 5 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed chocolate chip cookies

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

flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin b1), riboflavin, folic acid), high fructose corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, palm, shea oil, cornstarch, palm and palm kernel oil, dextrose, cocoa, chocolate, cocoa, lactose, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, caramel color, milk, artificial flavor, natural flavor

Additives: E150c Ammonia caramel , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate

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

As written on the pack

Unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate {vitamin b1}, riboflavin {vitamin b2}, folic acid), high fructose corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, palm and/or shea oil, cornstarch, palm and/or palm kernel oil, dextrose, cocoa (processed with alkali), chocolate, cocoa, lactose, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, caramel color, milk, artificial flavor, natural flavor.

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.
  • E322 Lecithins Lecithins are fatty substances extracted mostly from soybeans, sunflower seeds or eggs, used as emulsifiers to keep fat and water mixed, for example in chocolate.
  • 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.

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
  • Cocoa An ingredient mostly produced industrially and rarely used in home kitchens.
5 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.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
  • Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 50 chocolate chip cookies

From least to most processed, this one ranks 45th. 92% of the chocolate chip cookies 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 50 chocolate chip cookies, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0044000033392, last edited 26 June 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.