Is Marks & Spencer Ready to Bake Pains au Chocolat ultra-processed?

480g Chocolate croissant 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:

Gluten

12 ingredients
No additives
Nutri-Score E

Less processed viennoiseries

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

Wheatflour, Butter (processing marker) 21%, Water Chocolate 12% (Sugar (processing marker), Cocoa Mass Cocoa Butter Soya Lecithin), Sugar (processing marker), Yeast, Wheat Gluten (ultra-processing marker), Dried Whole Milk (processing marker), Egg, Wheatflour, Ascorbic Acid

As written on the pack

Wheatflour, Butter (21%) Water Chocolate (12%) (Sugar - Cocoa Mass Cocoa Butter Soya Lecithin)- Sugar, Yeast, Dried Wheat Gluten, Dried Whole Milk, Pasteurised Egg, Wheatflour, Ascorbic 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.

Gluten Wheat gluten, sold as "vital wheat gluten", is the protein washed out of wheat flour.

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.

Butter Butter, the fat churned from cream.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.
Milk powder Milk powder is milk with the water evaporated off: a preserved form of a whole food rather than an industrial extract.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 21 chocolate croissant

From least to most processed, this one ranks 1st. 100% of the chocolate croissant 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 21 chocolate croissant, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00041102, last edited 27 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.