Is Sainsbury's chicken & gravy shortcrust pastry pie 500g ultra-processed?

550 g Pies Sold in the United Kingdom

Yes, it's ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:

Colour
Dextrose
Glucose
E150a Plain caramel

34 ingredients
1 additive
Nutri-Score C

Less processed pies

Chicken and Leek Pie Marks & Spencer 4 ingredients · no additives NOVA group 1
Spinach, Greek Feta & Pine Nut Pie Higg 26 ingredients · no additives NOVA group 3
Chicken, Leek & Smoked Bacon Pie Mark & Spencer 33 ingredients · 4 additives NOVA group 3
Higgidy Creamy Chicken & Sautéed Leek Pie Higgidy 26 ingredients · no additives NOVA group 3

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

Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), British Chicken 25%, Water, Margarine (Palm Fat, Rapeseed Oil, Water), Chicken Stock Paste (Roast Chicken, Potato Flakes, Water, Salt (processing marker), Yeast Extract, Chicken Fat), Onion 2%, Corn Starch (processing marker), Dextrose (ultra-processing marker), Yeast Extract Paste (Yeast Extract (Barley), Salt (processing marker)), Spirit Vinegar, Salt (processing marker), Colour (ultra-processing marker) (Plain Caramel (ultra-processing marker)), Tomato Paste, Barn Egg, Bay, White Pepper

Additives: E150a Plain caramel

As written on the pack

Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), British Chicken (25%), Water, Margarine (Palm Fat, Rapeseed Oil, Water), Chicken Stock Paste (Roast Chicken, Rehydrated Potato Flakes, Water, Salt, Yeast Extract, Chicken Fat), Onion (2%), Corn Starch, Dextrose, Yeast Extract Paste (Yeast Extract (Barley), Salt), Spirit Vinegar, Salt, Colour (Plain Caramel), Tomato Paste, Pasteurised Barn Egg, Bay, White Pepper.

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.

E150a Plain caramel Plain caramel is a brown colour made by heating sugars.
Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.

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.

2 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.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 101 pies

From least to most processed, this one ranks 60th. 76% of the pies 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 101 pies, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00374491, 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.