Is Sainsbury's Wasabi peas ultra-processed?

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Pack of Sainsbury's Wasabi peas

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:

  • 12 ingredients
  • 3 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Ingredients

Ultra-processing Processing signs are highlighted

Peas 69%, Modified Maize Starch (ultra-processing marker), Sugar (processing marker), Palm Oil, Maize Starch (processing marker), Salt (processing marker), Wasabi (Maltodextrin (ultra-processing marker), Wasabi), Colours (ultra-processing marker) (Curcumin (ultra-processing marker)), Chlorophylls (ultra-processing marker)

Additives: E100 Curcumin , E140 Chlorophylls and Chlorophyllins , E140i Chlorophylls

As written on the pack

Peas (69%), Modified Maize Starch, Sugar, Palm Oil, Maize Starch, Salt, Wasabi Powder (Maltodextrin, Wasabi), Colours: Curcumin, Chlorophylls.

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.
  • E140 Chlorophylls and Chlorophyllins 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.
  • Colour Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.
  • Modified starch Modified starch is starch altered physically, with enzymes or chemically, so that it thickens, gels or survives freezing and heating better than ordinary starch.

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.

  • Maltodextrin Maltodextrin is a white powder made by partly breaking down starch.
3 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.

  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

How the NOVA groups work

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 01854930, 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 D (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.