Is it ultra-processed?
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Is McVities Digestives the light one cookies ultra-processed?

250 grams Biscuits Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of McVities Digestives the light one cookies

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:

  • 27 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score B

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

Flour 58% (Wat PER PER Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, BISCUIT 1946 286 464 68 19.1g 2.8g Thiamin), Vegetable Of, Sunflower, Pain, Wheat Flour 16%, dextrose, Sugar, Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Raising Agents, Sodium TES 2.8g 0.4g carbonate, Malic Acid, Potassium 61.6g 9.19 Bicarbonate, Ammonium 8.9g 1.3g 7.9g 1.2g Bicarbonate, Starch, Salt, 1.19 Emulsifiers, Sunflower Lecithin, 0.66 0.10g E472el Natural Flavouring Potassium Chloride, Magnesium biscuits per pack (17 Chloride w.mcvities.co.uk for ergens), inducing cereals ten, see ingredients May also com BAKIN

Additives: E296 Malic acid , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E502 Carbonates

As written on the pack

Flour (58%) (Wat PER PER Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, 100g BISCUIT 1946 286 464 68 19.1g 2.8g Thiamin), Vegetable Of (Sunflower, Pain, Wholemeal Wheat Flour (16%), dextrose, Sugar, Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Raising Agents (Sodium TES 2.8g 0.4g carbonate, Malic Acid, Potassium 61.6g 9.19 Bicarbonate, Ammonium 8.9g 1.3g 7.9g 1.2g Bicarbonate, Starch, Salt, 7.3g 1.19 Emulsifiers (Sunflower Lecithin, 0.66 0.10g E472el Natural Flavouring Potassium Chloride, Magnesium biscuits per pack: 17 Chloride w.mcvities.co.uk for ergens, inducing cereals ten, see ingredients May also com BAKIN

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.

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.

  • Dextrose Dextrose is pure glucose crystallised from starch-derived syrup.
  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.
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.

  • 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.
  • 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 848th. 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 5000168038780, 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 B (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.