Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Sainsbury's Christmas Pudding ultra-processed?

100g Cakes Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Sainsbury's Christmas Pudding

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:

  • 48 ingredients
  • 2 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed cakes

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

sultanas 17%, demerara sugar, cider 12%, breadcrumbs (wheat flour, salt, yeast), raisins 6%, vegetable suet, currants 5%, citrus (glucose syrup, orange peel, sugar, lemon peel, citric acid), cognac 4%, glacé cherries 3.5% (cherries, glucose-fructose syrup, natural colour (anthocyanins), citric acid), cream (from cows' milk), almonds 3%, sherry 3%, wheat flour, orange, lemon peel, pecan nuts 2%, brandy 1%, rum, rusk (wheat flour, salt), walnuts 1%, molasses, mixed spice (coriander, cinnamon, clove, fennel, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom), salt, orange oil

Additives: E163 Anthocyanins , E330 Citric acid

As written on the pack

sultanas 17%, demerara sugar, cider 12%, breadcrumbs (wheat flour, salt, yeast), raisins 6%, vegetable suet, currants 5%, candied citrus peel (glucose syrup, orange peel, sugar, lemon peel, citric acid), cognac 4%, glacé cherries 3,5% (cherries, glucose-fructose syrup, natural colour: anthocyanins, citric acid), cream (from cows’ milk), almonds 3%, sherry 3%, wheat flour, orange and lemon peel, pecan nuts 2%, brandy 1%, rum, rusk (wheat flour, salt), walnuts 1%, molasses, mixed spice (coriander, cinnamon, clove, fennel, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom), salt, orange oil

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.

  • E163 Anthocyanins Colours are substances which add or restore colour in a food, and include natural constituents of foods and natural sources which are normally not consumed as foods as such and not normally used as characteristic ingredients of food.
  • 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.

  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Glucose syrup Glucose syrup is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
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.

  • 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.
  • Bread An ingredient mostly produced industrially and rarely used in home kitchens.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 377 cakes

From least to most processed, this one ranks 144th. 94% of the cakes 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 377 cakes, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 01302240, 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 D (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.