Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Colman’s Tartare sauce ultra-processed?

Tartare sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Colman’s Tartare 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:

  • 23 ingredients
  • 3 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed tartare 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

Spirit vinegar, rapeseed oil, water, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, gherkins 8% (gharkins, salt, water, acid (lactic acid)), salt, free range British EGG yolk powder 1.9%, modified potato starch, capers 1.3%, mustard, thickener (xanthan gum), British parsley 0.18%, preservative (potassium sorbate), dextrose, garlic

Additives: E202 Potassium sorbate , E270 Lactic acid , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Spirit vinegar, rapeseed oil, water, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, gherkins (8%) (gharkins, salt, water, acid (lactic acid)), salt, free range British EGG yolk powder (1.9%), modified potato starch, capers (1.3%), MUSTARD flour, thickener (xanthan gum), British parsley (0.18%), preservative (potassium sorbate), dextrose, garlic powder.

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.

  • E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
  • Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.
  • 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.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
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.

  • E202 Potassium sorbate Preservatives are substances which prolong the shelf-life of foods by protecting them against deterioration caused by micro-organisms and/or which protect against growth of pathogenic micro-organisms.
  • 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 14 tartare sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 14th. 86% of the tartare 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 14 tartare sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0744440536148, last edited 23 January 2024), 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.