Is John west Indian super tuna salad with couscous and lentils ultra-processed?

220g Tuna salads 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:

Thickener
Modified starch
E412 Guar gum
E415 Xanthan gum

24 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score C

Less processed tuna salads

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

Skipjack Tuna, Giant Couscous 16% (Water, Wheat Flour), Lentils 12%, Tomatoes 12%, Soya Beans 9%, Onions, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Sugar (processing marker), Wild Rice 2.2%, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Curry Spices, Salt (processing marker), Concentrated Tomato Purée, Garlic Purée, Coriander Leaf, Modified Corn Starch (ultra-processing marker), Thickeners (ultra-processing marker) (Xanthan (ultra-processing marker), Guar Gums (ultra-processing marker)), Turmeric, Chilli

Additives: E412 Guar gum , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Skipjack Tuna (Fish) (18%), Giant Couscous (16%) (Water, Wheat Flour), Lentils (12%), Tomatoes (12%), Soya Beans (9%), Onions, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Sugar, Wild Rice (2.2%), Concentrated Lemon Juice, Curry Spices (Mustard) (0.8%), Salt, Concentrated Tomato Purée, Garlic Purée, Coriander Leaf, Modified Corn Starch, Thickeners: Xanthan & Guar Gums, Turmeric, Chilli.

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.

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.
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.

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.

Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.
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 14 tuna salads

From least to most processed, this one ranks 12th. 71% of the tuna salads 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 14 tuna salads, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000171060068, last edited 18 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 C (from A, best, to E).
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.