Is Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla Bean Paste ultra-processed?

100g Cooking helpers Sold in the United Kingdom and France

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Invert sugar
Thickener
E413 Tragacanth

7 ingredients
1 additive
Nutri-Score D

Less processed cooking helpers

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

invert sugar syrup (ultra-processing marker), vanilla extract, water, sugar (processing marker), spent vanilla seeds, thickener (ultra-processing marker) (tragacanth (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E413 Tragacanth

As written on the pack

invert sugar syrup, vanilla extract, water, sugar, spent vanilla seeds, thickener (tragacanth)

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.

E413 Tragacanth Emulsifiers are substances which make it possible to form or maintain a homogenous mixture of two or more immiscible phases such as oil and water in a foodstuff.
Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.

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.

Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.

1 ingredient that would only make it processed

Kitchen staples like sugar, salt and oil. On their own they make a food processed, not ultra-processed.

Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 219 cooking helpers

From least to most processed, this one ranks 137th. 73% of the cooking helpers 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 219 cooking helpers, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000254019860, last edited 24 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 D (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.