Is it ultra-processed?
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Is General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios ultra-processed?

430 g Breakfast cereals Sold in Canada

Pack of General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios

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:

  • 26 ingredients
  • 2 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed breakfast cereals

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

oats, Sugars (sugar, honey, golden syrup), Corn starch, Salt, Calcium carbonate, High monounsaturated canola, canola, high monounsaturated sunflower oil, Trisodium phosphate, Tocopherols (for freshness), Natural almond flavour, Monoglycerides, Vitamins, minerals (Iron), Niacinamide (vitamin B3), Calcium pantothenate (vitamin B5), Pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), Folate

Additives: E339 Sodium phosphates , E339iii Trisodium phosphate

As written on the pack

Whole grain oats, Sugars (sugar, honey, golden syrup), Corn starch, Salt, Calcium carbonate, High monounsaturated canola, canola and/or high monounsaturated sunflower oil, Trisodium phosphate, Tocopherols (for freshness), Natural almond flavour, Monoglycerides, Vitamins and minerals: Iron, Niacinamide (vitamin B3), Calcium pantothenate (vitamin B5), Pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), Folate.

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.

  • 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.

  • Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.
4 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.

  • Honey Honey, used as a sweetener.
  • 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 1,868 breakfast cereals

From least to most processed, this one ranks 1398th. 60% of the breakfast cereals 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 1,868 breakfast cereals, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0065633132948, last edited 21 May 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.