Is Sainsbury's cook's milk chocolate chips ultra-processed?

100 g Milk chocolates Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Sainsbury's cook's milk chocolate chips

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:

  • 9 ingredients
  • No additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed milk chocolates

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 (processing marker), Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Whole Milk Powder (processing marker) (Cows' Milk), whey Powder (ultra-processing marker) (cows' Milk), Solids 14%, Cocoa Solids 29%

As written on the pack

Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Whole Milk Powder (Cows' Milk), whey Powder (cows' Milk), Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin Milk Chocolate contains: Milk Solids 14% minimum, Cocoa Solids 29% minimum.

What makes it ultra-processed

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.

  • 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.
4 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.

  • Chocolates Products in the category "Chocolates" are at least group 3.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • 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 279 milk chocolates

From least to most processed, this one ranks 23rd. 93% of the milk chocolates 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 279 milk chocolates, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 01888584, last edited 5 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.