Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Lay's Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar ultra-processed?

8 oz Salt and vinegar crisps Sold in the United States

Pack of Lay's Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar

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:

  • 15 ingredients
  • 1 additive
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed salt and vinegar crisps

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

potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and canola oil), maltodextrin (made from corn), sea salt, vinegar, buttermilk, lactose, sugar, dextrose, yeast extract, and citric acid

Additives: E330 Citric acid

As written on the pack

potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, and/or canola oil), maltodextrin (made from corn), sea salt, vinegar, buttermilk, lactose, sugar, dextrose, yeast extract, and citric acid.

What makes it ultra-processed

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.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
  • Maltodextrin Maltodextrin is a white powder made by partly breaking down 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.

  • Salty snacks Products in the category "Salty snacks" are at least group 3.
  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 28 salt and vinegar crisps

From least to most processed, this one ranks 27th. 93% of the salt and vinegar crisps 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 28 salt and vinegar crisps, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0028400372169, last edited 4 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 D (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.