Is Fray Bentos Chicken Meatballs in Tomato Sauce ultra-processed?

380 g Meat balls Sold in the United Kingdom and France

It's processed, but not ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Whole foods combined with:

Salt
Starch
Sugar

23 ingredients
1 additive
Nutri-Score C

Less processed meat preparations

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

Water, Chicken Meatball 34% (Chicken, Water, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Niacin, Iron, Folic Acid, Thiamin), Chicken Fat, Onion, Salt (processing marker), Potato Starch (processing marker), Maize Starch (processing marker), Spices), Tomato Paste, Sugar (processing marker), Maize Starch (processing marker), Yeast Extract, Salt (processing marker), Citric Acid

Additives: E330 Citric acid

As written on the pack

Water, Chicken Meatball (34%) (Mechanically Separated Chicken, Water, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Niacin, Iron, Folic Acid, Thiamin), Chicken Fat, Onion Purée, Salt, Potato Starch, Maize Starch, Spices), Tomato Paste, Sugar, Maize Starch, Yeast Extract (contains Barley), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid).

What makes it processed

Culinary ingredients

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.

Category rules

Open Food Facts puts every product in this category in at least this group.

Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 47 meat balls

From least to most processed, this one ranks 11th. 74% of the meat balls 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 47 meat balls, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5012427044203, last edited 25 September 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 C (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.