Is Homepride Pasta Bake Creamy Tomato & Herb ultra-processed?

Pasta sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Flavouring
Lactose
Modified starch
E415 Xanthan gum

21 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score B

Less processed pasta sauces

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

tomato purée 73%, tomatoes 9%, rapeseed oil, onion 4.5%, sugar (processing marker), basil 1%, modified maize Starch (ultra-processing marker), salt (processing marker), hard cheese (processing marker), garlic pureé, egg yolk powder, Acidity Regulator (citric acid), flavourings (ultra-processing marker) (contain barley, celery, milk), black pepper, stabiliser (xanthan gum (ultra-processing marker)), lactose (ultra-processing marker)

Additives: E330 Citric acid , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

tomato purée (73%), tomatoes (9%), rapeseed oil, onion purée (4.5%), sugar, basil (1%), modified maize Starch, salt, dehydrated hard cheese (milk), garlic pureé, egg yolk powder, Acidity Regulator (citric acid), flavourings (contain barley, celery and milk), ground black pepper, stabiliser (xanthan gum), lactose (milk).

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.

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.

Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.

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.

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.
Cheese Cheese is milk preserved with salt, cultures and rennet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 317 pasta sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 293rd. 49% of the pasta sauces 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 317 pasta sauces, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000354908910, last edited 9 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 B (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.