Is Marks & Spencers Fruity flapjack cookies ultra-processed?

200 g Biscuits Sold in the United Kingdom and France

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Invert sugar
E450 Diphosphates

20 ingredients
5 additives
Nutri-Score E

Less processed biscuits

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

Salted Butter (processing marker) 18% (Butter, Salt (processing marker), with Wheatflour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Rolled Oats, Sultanas 13%, · Desiccated Coconut 8%, Dried Apricots 7% (Apricots, e220), Golden Syrup (ultra-processing marker) (Invert Sugar Syrup), Egg, Sodium Bicarbonate, e450 (ultra-processing marker), e503

Additives: E220 Sulphur dioxide , E450 Diphosphates , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate , E503 Ammonium carbonates

As written on the pack

Salted Butter (18%) (Butter (Milk) · Salt) · Demerara Sugar · Wheatflour contains Gluten (with Wheatflour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin) · Rolled Oats · Sultanas (13%)· Desiccated Coconut (8%) · Dried Apricots (7%) (Apricots · Preservative: E220 (Sulphites)) Golden Syrup (Invert Sugar Syrup) · Pasteurised Egg · Raising Agent: Sodium Bicarbonate, E450, E503.

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.

E450 Diphosphates Diphosphates are phosphate salts used as raising agents in baking powder, and to hold water in processed meats and cheese.

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.

Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.

3 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.
Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 1,514 biscuits

From least to most processed, this one ranks 572nd. 83% of the biscuits 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 1,514 biscuits, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00394963, last edited 13 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.