Is Pop-Tarts Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon ultra-processed?
Yes, it's ultra-processed
- 1 Unprocessed
- 2 Kitchen staple
- 3 Processed
- 4 Ultra-processed
Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:
- 27 ingredients
- 10 additives
- Nutri-Score E
Less processed biscuits
Ingredients
Ultra-processing Processing
flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin b1 (thiamin mononitrate), vitamin b2 (riboflavin), folic acid), sugar (processing marker), soybean, palm oil (with tbhq for freshness), corn syrup (ultra-processing marker), dextrose (ultra-processing marker), high fructose corn syrup (ultra-processing marker), wheat flour, contains two percent and less of molasses, salt (processing marker), baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate (ultra-processing marker), monocalcium phosphate, cinnamon, wheat starch (processing marker), gelatin (ultra-processing marker), caramel color, soy lecithin (ultra-processing marker)
Additives: E150c Ammonia caramel , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E341 Calcium phosphates , E341i Monocalcium phosphate , E428 Gelatine , E450 Diphosphates , E450i Disodium diphosphate , E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate
As written on the pack
Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin b1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin b2 [riboflavin], folic acid), sugar, soybean and palm oil (with tbhq for freshness), corn syrup, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, bleached wheat flour, contains two percent or less of molasses, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), cinnamon, wheat starch, gelatin, caramel color, soy lecithin.
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.
- E150c Ammonia caramel Ammonia caramel is a brown colour made by heating sugars with ammonia compounds.
- 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.
- E428 Gelatine Gelatine is a gelling agent made from collagen in animal skin and bones.
- 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.
- 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.
- High fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup is made from corn starch: enzymes break it down to glucose and convert part of that into fructose, giving a syrup about as sweet as table sugar.
- Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
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.
Among 12 toaster pastries
From least to most processed, this one ranks 2nd. 100% of the toaster pastries here are ultra-processed.
About this information
- Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0038000311314, last edited 25 September 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.