Is Sainsbury's Ginger snaps ultra-processed?

Biscuits 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:

Glucose
Fructose

15 ingredients
2 additives
Nutri-Score E

Less processed biscuits

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, niacin, iron, thiamine), sugar (processing marker), glucose-fructose syrup (ultra-processing marker), palm oil, semolina (wheat), ginger powder 1%, sodium hydrogen carbonate, disodium diphosphate salt, lemon oil

Additives: E500 Sodium carbonates , E500ii Sodium hydrogen carbonate

As written on the pack

Fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, niacin, iron, thiamine), sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, palm oil, semolina (wheat), ginger powder 1%, sodium hydrogen carbonate, disodium diphosphate salt, lemon oil.

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.

Glucose Glucose, usually listed as 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.

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.

Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 1,514 biscuits

From least to most processed, this one ranks 460th. 83% of the biscuits 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 1,514 biscuits, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00442862, last edited 7 August 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.