Is Sainsbury's Smoked Basa ultra-processed?

2x 240g Fish fillets 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
E100 Curcumin
E160c Paprika extract

6 ingredients
2 additives

Less processed fish fillets

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

Basa (Pangasius hypophthalmus), Salt (processing marker), Colours (ultra-processing marker) (Curcumin (ultra-processing marker)), Paprika Extract (ultra-processing marker)

Additives: E100 Curcumin , E160c Paprika extract

As written on the pack

Basa (Pangasius hypophthalmus) (Fish) (98%), Salt, Colours: Curcumin, 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.

E100 Curcumin 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.
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.

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.

Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 174 fish fillets

From least to most processed, this one ranks 154th. 32% of the fish fillets 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 174 fish fillets, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00485913, 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.
General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.