Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Marks & Spencer Triple chocolate crunch ultra-processed?

500g Crunchy cereal clusters Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Marks & Spencer Triple chocolate crunch

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:

  • 38 ingredients
  • 3 additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Less processed crunchy cereal clusters

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

Oat Flakes 50%, White and Dark Chocolate Curls 13% (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Milk, Whey, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Flavouring), Vegetable Oil (Sunflower Vegetable Oil, Rapeseed Vegetable Oil), Sugar, Milk Chocolate Chunks 6% (Sugar, Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Whey, Skimmed Milk, Emulsifier (Lecithins), Flavouring), Fructo-Oligosaccharides, Rice Crisp (Rice Flour, Wheatflour, Sugar, Malted Barley, Salt), Glucose Syrup, Honey, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Flavouring, Caramelised Sugar, Antioxidant (Tocopherol-Rich Extract)

Additives: E306 Tocopherol-rich extract , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin

As written on the pack

Oat Flakes (50%), White and Dark Chocolate Curls (13%) (Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Dried Milk, Dried Whey (Milk), Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin, Flavouring), Vegetable Oil (Sunflower/Rapeseed), Sugar, Milk Chocolate Chunks (6%) (Sugar, Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Dried Whey (Milk), Dried Skimmed Milk, Emulsifier: Lecithins, Flavouring), Fructo-Oligosaccharides, Rice Crisp (Rice Flour, Wheatflour (contains Gluten), Sugar, Malted Barley (contains Gluten), Salt), Glucose Syrup, Honey, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Flavouring, Caramelised Sugar, Antioxidant: Tocopherol-Rich Extract

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.
  • Emulsifier Emulsifiers keep fat and water from separating, giving products a smooth, stable texture over a long shelf life.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • Sweetener Sweeteners give sweetness with few or no calories, many at hundreds of times the strength of sugar.

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.
  • Glucose syrup Glucose syrup is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Whey Whey is the liquid left over from cheese making, usually dried into a powder and used as a cheap source of milk solids, protein and lactose.
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.

  • Honey Honey, used as a sweetener.
  • 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.
  • 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 72 crunchy cereal clusters

From least to most processed, this one ranks 71st. 81% of the crunchy cereal clusters 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 72 crunchy cereal clusters, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 29310715, 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 C (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.