Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Reese’s Peanut Butter Bar ultra-processed?

1 x 90g Candy chocolate bars Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Bar

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:

  • 25 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed candy chocolate bars

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

Sugar, Vegetable Oils in Varying Proportions (Palm Kernel, Palm, Shea, Sunflower, Safflower), Peanuts, Lactose, Whey Powder, Cocoa Mass, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Skimmed Milk Powder, Dextrose, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Palm Kernel, Palm), Salt, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Flavouring, Antioxidant (e319), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)

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

Also detected, but not matched to one ingredient: Hydrogenated oil.

As written on the pack

Sugar, Vegetable Oils in Varying Proportions (Palm Kernel, Palm, Shea, Sunflower and/or Safflower), Peanuts, Lactose (Milk), Whey Powder (Milk), Cocoa Mass, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder, Skimmed Milk Powder, Dextrose, Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Palm Kernel, Palm), Salt, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin*), Flavouring, Antioxidant (E319), Acidity Regulator (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.
  • Emulsifier Emulsifiers keep fat and water from separating, giving products a smooth, stable texture over a long shelf life.
  • 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.
  • Hydrogenated oil Hydrogenation turns liquid oil into a solid fat that resists going rancid.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
  • Whey Whey is the liquid left over from cheese making, usually dried into a powder and used as a cheap source of milk solids, protein and lactose.
6 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 fat Vegetable fats are oils that are solid at room temperature, such as palm or coconut fat.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
  • Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.
  • 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 201 candy chocolate bars

From least to most processed, this one ranks 170th. 94% of the candy chocolate bars 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 201 candy chocolate bars, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 0034000443659, last edited 10 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 E (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.