Is Mrs Elswood Whole sweet cucumbers, pickled ultra-processed?

670g Pickled gherkins 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:

Colour
Firming agent
Flavouring
E101 Riboflavin

11 ingredients
4 additives
Nutri-Score C

Less processed pickled gherkins

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

Cucumbers, acetic acid, sugar (processing marker), salt (processing marker), onions, Mustard seeds, flavourings (ultra-processing marker), firming agent (ultra-processing marker) (calcium chloride), colour (ultra-processing marker) (riboflavin (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E101 Riboflavin , E101i Riboflavin , E260 Acetic acid , E509 Calcium chloride

As written on the pack

Cucumbers, acetic acid, sugar, salt, onions, Mustard seeds, flavourings, firming agent (calcium chloride), colour (riboflavin)

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.

E101 Riboflavin Colours are substances which add or restore colour in a food, and include natural constituents of foods and natural sources which are normally not consumed as foods as such and not normally used as characteristic ingredients of food.
Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.
Firming agent Firming agents keep fruit and vegetable tissue crisp or firm through processing and storage.
Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.

2 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.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 25 pickled gherkins

From least to most processed, this one ranks 24th. 56% of the pickled gherkins 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 25 pickled gherkins, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 50409334, 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.