Is McVitie's Digestives Milk Chocolate ultra-processed?

266 g Digestives covered with chocolate 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:

Glucose
Fructose

8 ingredients
No additives
Nutri-Score E

Less processed chocolate biscuits

Choco Chip Biscuits Gullón 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 3
Chocolate Gingers Island Bakery 22 ingredients · 2 additives NOVA group 3
Oat Crumbles Island Bakery 14 ingredients · 2 additives NOVA group 3
Duchy Organic Stem Ginger Biscuits Coated in Dark Chocolate Duchy Organic 20 ingredients · 2 additives NOVA group 3

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

Flour, Milk Chocolate, Palm Oil, Wheat Flour, Sugar (processing marker), Glucose-Fructose Syrup (ultra-processing marker), Raising Agents, Salt (processing marker)

As written on the pack

Flour, Milk Chocolate, Palm Oil, Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Sugar, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Raising Agents, Salt.

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.

Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.

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.

Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 21 digestives covered with chocolate

From least to most processed, this one ranks 1st. 100% of the digestives covered with chocolate 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 digestives covered with chocolate, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000168194189, last edited 7 August 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.