Is General Mills Plain Cheerios ultra-processed?

350g Extruded cereals Sold in Canada

It's processed, but not ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Whole foods combined with:

Salt
Starch
Sugar

17 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score C

Less processed extruded 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, corn starch (processing marker), sugar (processing marker), salt (processing marker), trisodium phosphate, calcium carbonate, monoglycerides, tocopherols 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, CORN STARCH, SUGAR, SALT, TRISODIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, MONOGLYCERIDES, TOCOPHEROLS VITAMINS & MINERALS: IRON, NIACINAMIDE (VITAMIN B3), CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE (VITAMIN B5), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), FOLATE.

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.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 373 extruded cereals

From least to most processed, this one ranks 126th. 64% of the extruded 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 373 extruded cereals, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0065633132818, last edited 1 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 C (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.