Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Nescafe Aero Peppermint Mocha ultra-processed?

Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Nescafe Aero Peppermint Mocha

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:

  • 19 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Skimmed MILK powder 20%, glucose syrup, drinking chocolate 16% (sugar, cocoa powder 25%), fat-reduced drinking chocolate 12% (sugar, cocoa powder 25%), sugar, coconut oil, instant coffee 5%, lactose, thickener (xanthan gum), natural flavourings, acidity regulators (sodium bicarbonate, citric acid), salt

Additives: E330 Citric acid , E415 Xanthan gum , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate

As written on the pack

Skimmed MILK powder (20%), glucose syrup, drinking chocolate (16%)((sugar, cocoa powder (25%)), fat-reduced drinking chocolate (12%) ((sugar, cocoa powder (25%)), sugar, coconut oil, instant coffee (5%), lactose (MILK), thickener (xanthan gum), natural flavourings, acidity regulators (sodium bicarbonate, citric acid), salt. Suitable for vegetarians

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.

  • E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.
  • Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.

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.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
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.
  • 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

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 8445291266506, last edited 31 July 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.