Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Davids Cookies Butter Pecan Meltaway ultra-processed?

32 oz Biscuits Sold in the United States and France

Pack of Davids Cookies Butter Pecan Meltaway

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:

  • 33 ingredients
  • 3 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed biscuits

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

Enriched wheat flour (wheat, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), butter, margarine (vegetable oil blend (palm fruit, soybean, olive oils), water, salt, non-fat dry milk, soy lecithin, monoglycerides, natural flavor, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene color), pecans, sugar, dusting sugar (dextrose, cornstarch, palm oil, titanium dioxide (color), hydrogenated cottonseed oil, artificial flavor), natural vanilla flavor, salt

Additives: E171 Titanium dioxide , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin

As written on the pack

Enriched wheat flour (wheat, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), butter, margarine (vegetable oil blend [palm fruit, soybean and olive oils], water, salt, non-fat dry milk, soy lecithin, monoglycerides, natural flavor, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene color), pecans, sugar, dusting sugar (dextrose, cornstarch, palm oil, titanium dioxide [color], hydrogenated cottonseed oil, artificial flavor), natural vanilla flavor, salt. CONTAINS: MILK, TREE NUTS, SOY, WHEAT

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.

  • E171 Titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide is a white pigment.
  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.
  • Hydrogenated oil Hydrogenation turns liquid oil into a solid fat that resists going rancid.
7 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.

  • Butter Butter, the fat churned from cream.
  • 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.
  • Milk powder Milk powder is milk with the water evaporated off: a preserved form of a whole food rather than an industrial extract.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 1,514 biscuits

From least to most processed, this one ranks 1232nd. 83% of the biscuits 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 1,514 biscuits, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0049578151813, last edited 16 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.