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Is Sainsbury's Vintage Cheddar Mac and Cheese ultra-processed?

375 g Macaroni and cheese Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Sainsbury's Vintage Cheddar Mac and Cheese

It's processed, but not ultra-processed

  1. 1 Unprocessed
  2. 2 Kitchen staple
  3. 3 Processed
  4. 4 Ultra-processed

Whole foods combined with:

  • 44 ingredients
  • No additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Cows' Milk, Cooked Gobetti Pasta (Durum Wheat Semolina, Water), Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese 10% (Cows' Milk), Water, Single Cream (Cows' Milk), Vintage Cheddar Cheese 5% (Cows' Milk), Paprika Breadcrumb 3% (Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Rapeseed Oil, Sunflower Oil, Olive Oil, Paprika, Parsley, Yeast, Salt, Sea Salt, Turmeric), Cornflour, Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, English Mustard (Water, Mustard Flour, Wheat Flour, Salt, Sugar, Yellow Mustard Flour, Turmeric), White Pepper

As written on the pack

Skimmed Cows' Milk, Cooked Gobetti Pasta (Durum Wheat Semolina, Water), Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese (10%) (Cows' Milk), Water, Single Cream (Cows' Milk), Vintage Cheddar Cheese (5%) (Cows' Milk), Paprika Breadcrumb (3%) (Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Rapeseed Oil, Sunflower Oil, Olive Oil, Paprika, Parsley, Yeast, Salt, Sea Salt, Turmeric), Cornflour, Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, English Mustard (Water, Mustard Flour, Wheat Flour, Salt, Sugar, Yellow Mustard Flour, Turmeric), White Pepper.

What makes it processed

Processed ingredients

Processed foods in their own right, such as cheese or milk powder.

  • Cheese Cheese is milk preserved with salt, cultures and rennet.

Culinary ingredients

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 oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.

Category rules

Open Food Facts puts every product in this category in at least this group.

  • Meals Products in the category "Meals" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 48 macaroni and cheese

From least to most processed, this one ranks 2nd. 94% of the macaroni and cheese 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 48 macaroni and cheese, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 00458023, last edited 4 October 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 C (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.