Is Sainsbury's Chopped and shaped British chicken pieces in a breadcrumb coating ultra-processed?

Cooked chicken 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
E160c Paprika extract

28 ingredients
1 additive

Less processed cooked chicken

Frozen chicken drumsticks Moy park 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1
half butter basted chicken to go M&S 3 ingredients · no additives NOVA group 1
British chicken drumsticks Birchwood Farm 1 ingredient · no additives NOVA group 1
Japanese Style Chicken Curry with rice Myprotein 23 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

british chicken 60%, breadcrumb (fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), yeast, salt (processing marker)), rapeseed oil, water, fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), wheat starch (processing marker), salt (processing marker), yeast extract, white wine vinegar, onion, garlic, sugar (processing marker), black pepper, colour (ultra-processing marker) (paprika extract (ultra-processing marker))

Additives: E160c Paprika extract

As written on the pack

british chicken (60%), breadcrumb (fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), yeast, salt), rapeseed oil, water, fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), wheat starch, salt, yeast extract, white wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, black pepper, colour: paprika extract

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.

E160c Paprika extract Paprika extract is a red-orange colour extracted from paprika peppers.
Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.

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.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 78 cooked chicken

From least to most processed, this one ranks 47th. 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 00301435, last edited 22 April 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.
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.