Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Sainsbury's Custard tard ultra-processed?

Custards and pastry creams Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Sainsbury's Custard tard

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:

  • 22 ingredients
  • 1 additive
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed custards and pastry creams

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 cows' milk, fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), whole egg 16%, caster sugar, palm oil, icing sugar, dried glucose syrup, rapeseed oil, palm stearin, british cream (cows' milk), palm kermel oil, nutmeg, flavouring, dextrose, colour (mixed carotenes)

Additives: E160a Carotene

As written on the pack

british cows' milk, fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), pasteurised whole egg (16%), caster sugar, palm oil, icing sugar, dried glucose syrup, rapeseed oil, palm stearin, british cream (cows' milk), palm kermel oil, nutmeg, flavouring, dextrose, colour: mixed carotenes

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.

  • E160a Carotene Carotenes are orange-yellow pigments, either synthesised or extracted from carrots, algae or palm oil.
  • Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.
  • 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.
  • Glucose syrup Glucose syrup is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
1 ingredient that would only make it processed

Kitchen staples like sugar, salt and oil. On their own they make a food processed, not ultra-processed.

  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 36 custards and pastry creams

From least to most processed, this one ranks 18th. 94% of the custards and pastry creams 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 36 custards and pastry creams, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 01294934, last edited 9 July 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.