Is Lorna Doone Shortbread cookies ultra-processed?
Yes, it's ultra-processed
- 1 Unprocessed
- 2 Kitchen staple
- 3 Processed
- 4 Ultra-processed
Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:
- 20 ingredients
- 4 additives
- Nutri-Score E
Less processed shortbread
-
All-Butter Shortbread Fingers
Walker's
4 ingredients · no additives
NOVA group
3
-
Shortbread mini shortbread fingers shortbread cookies
Walkers
4 ingredients · no additives
NOVA group
3
-
Pure Butter Scottie Dogs Shortbread
Walkers
4 ingredients · no additives
NOVA group
3
-
Shortbread House of Edinburgh
Truly Handmade SHORTBREAD FINGERS Traditional Recipes
14 ingredients · no additives
NOVA group
3
Ingredients
Ultra-processing Processing
flour, wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin b1), riboflavin (vitamin b2, folic acid), soybean, palm oil, sugar (processing marker), cottonseed oil (ultra-processing marker), corn flour, salt (processing marker), high fructose corn syrup (ultra-processing marker), baking soda, soy lecithin (ultra-processing marker), cornstarch (processing marker), artificial flavor (ultra-processing marker)
Additives: E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate
As written on the pack
UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN AND/OR PALM OIL, SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, CORN FLOUR, SALT, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, BAKING SODA, SOY LECITHIN, CORNSTARCH, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR. CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.
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.
- Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
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.
- Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
- High fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch: enzymes break it down to glucose and convert part of that into fructose, giving a syrup about as sweet as table sugar.
- Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
- Cottonseed oil An ingredient mostly produced industrially and rarely used in home kitchens.
5 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.
- Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
- Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.
Among 64 shortbread
From least to most processed, this one ranks 62nd. 33% of the shortbread here are ultra-processed.
About this information
- Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0019320015441, last edited 25 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.