Is Jack Daniel's Honey BBQ Sauce ultra-processed?

Barbecue sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Jack Daniel's Honey BBQ Sauce

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:

  • 28 ingredients
  • 1 additive
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed barbecue 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

Tomatoes, Sugar (processing marker), Honey (processing marker) 9%, Vinegar, Tamarind, Invert Sugar Syrup (ultra-processing marker), Molasses (processing marker), Salt (processing marker), Mustard (Water, Mustard Seed, Vinegar, Salt (processing marker), Sugar (processing marker), Spices), Modified Corn Starch (ultra-processing marker), Smoke Flavour (ultra-processing marker), Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Caramelised Sugar (processing marker), Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey 0.3%, Dried Garlic, Thickener (ultra-processing marker) (Pectin (ultra-processing marker)), Herbs, Spices, Dried Onion, Apple Flavor (ultra-processing marker), Dextrose (ultra-processing marker)

Additives: E440 Pectins

As written on the pack

Tomatoes, Sugar, Honey (9%), Vinegar, Tamarind Concentrate, Invert Sugar Syrup, Molasses, Salt, Mustard (Water, Mustard Seed, Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Spices), Modified Corn Starch, Smoke Flavour, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Caramelised Sugar, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey (0,3%), Dried Garlic. Thickener (Pectin), Herbs, Spices, Dried Onion, Apple Flavor, Dextrose.

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.

  • E440 Pectins Pectins are gelling agents extracted from citrus peel or apple pomace.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.
  • 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.
  • 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 107 barbecue sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 99th. 86% of the barbecue 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 107 barbecue sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0810020931860, last edited 31 March 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 E (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.