Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Red Hen Breaded Chicken Nuggets ultra-processed?

Cooked chicken Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Red Hen Breaded Chicken Nuggets

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:

  • 17 ingredients
  • No additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Less processed cooked chicken

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

Chicken Breast Meat 60%, Breadcrumbs (Wheat Flour, Yeast, Salt), Wheat Flour, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Pea Fibre, Starch (Pea, Tapioca), Dextrose, Salt, Natural Flavourings, Skimmed Milk Powder, Paprika

As written on the pack

60% Chicken Breast Meat, Breadcrumbs, (Wheat Flour, Yeast, Salt), Wheat Flour, Water, Rapeseed Oil, Pea Fibre, Starch (Pea, Tapioca), Dextrose, Salt, Natural Flavourings, Skimmed Milk Powder, Paprika. Allergy Advice

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.

  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.

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.
  • Vegetable fiber Isolated plant fibres, such as inulin, oat fibre or bamboo fibre, are extracted industrially and added to change texture or support "source of fibre" claims.
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.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
  • 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

Among 78 cooked chicken

From least to most processed, this one ranks 61st. 79% of the cooked chicken 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 78 cooked chicken, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 4335619140950, 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.