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Is Reese's 2 Peanut Butter Cups ultra-processed?

42g Peanut butter cups Sold in Sweden, Bulgaria and 4 more countries

Pack of Reese's 2 Peanut Butter Cups

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:

  • 15 ingredients
  • 5 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed peanut butter cups

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

Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lactose, lecithin, pgpr), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, tbhq, citric acid

Additives: E319 Tertiary-butylhydroquinone (tbhq) , E322 Lecithins , E322i Lecithin , E330 Citric acid , E476 Polyglycerol polyricinoleate

As written on the pack

Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lactose, lecithin (soy), PGPR), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, TBHQ, citric acid.

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.
  • E476 Polyglycerol polyricinoleate Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) is an emulsifier made from castor oil.

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.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
5 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.

  • Candies Products in the category "Candies" are at least group 3.
  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Vegetable fat Vegetable fats are oils that are solid at room temperature, such as palm or coconut fat.
  • Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 13 peanut butter cups

From least to most processed, this one ranks 13th. 62% of the peanut butter cups 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 13 peanut butter cups, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0034000702329, last edited 3 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.