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Is Healthy Choice Café Steamers Crustless Chicken Pot Pie ultra-processed?

272 g Microwave meals Sold in the United States

Pack of Healthy Choice Café Steamers Crustless Chicken Pot Pie

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:

  • 51 ingredients
  • 5 additives
  • Nutri-Score B

Less processed microwave meals

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

Pot pie sauce (water, modified corn starch, chicken flavor (chicken broth, salt, chicken fat), contains 2% and less of (soybean oil), butter (cream, salt), onions, nonfat dry milk, chardonnay wine, garlic, potassium chloride, sea salt, spices, canola oil, olive oil, xanthan gum, guar gum), chicken (chicken breast, water, olive oil, contains 2% and less of (isolated soy protein product, isolated soy protein), modified potato starch, corn starch, carrageenan, soy lecithin, dextrose, potassium chloride, salt, sodium phosphates, flavoring), dumplings (water, wheat flour, whole eggs, durum wheat flour, salt, spices, natural flavor, oleoresin turmeric), corn, carrots, peas

Additives: E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E407 Carrageenan , E412 Guar gum , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Pot pie sauce (water, modified corn starch, chicken flavor [chicken broth, salt, chicken fat], contains 2% or less of: soybean oil, butter [cream, salt], onions, nonfat dry milk, chardonnay wine, garlic, potassium chloride, sea salt, spices, canola oil, olive oil, xanthan gum, guar gum), cooked chicken (chicken breast, water, olive oil, contains 2% or less of: isolated soy protein product [isolated soy protein, modified potato starch, corn starch, carrageenan, soy lecithin], dextrose, potassium chloride, salt, sodium phosphates, flavoring), dumplings (water, wheat flour, whole eggs, durum wheat flour, salt, spices, natural flavor, oleoresin turmeric), corn, carrots, peas. contains: egg, milk, 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.

  • 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.
  • E407 Carrageenan Carrageenan is a thickener and gelling agent extracted from red seaweed, used widely in dairy desserts, plant-based drinks and processed meats.
  • E412 Guar gum Guar gum is a thickener ground from the seeds of the guar plant.
  • E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • Modified starch Modified starch is starch altered physically, with enzymes or chemically, so that it thickens, gels or survives freezing and heating better than ordinary starch.

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.
6 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.

  • Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.
  • Butter Butter, the fat churned from cream.
  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
  • 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 351 microwave meals

From least to most processed, this one ranks 331st. 72% of the microwave meals 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 351 microwave meals, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0072655001176, last edited 22 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 B (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.