Is Schwartz Creamy Pepper Sauce ultra-processed?
Yes, it's ultra-processed
- 1 Unprocessed
- 2 Kitchen staple
- 3 Processed
- 4 Ultra-processed
Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:
- 32 ingredients
- 4 additives
- Nutri-Score E
Less processed sauces
Ingredients
Ultra-processing Processing
wheat flour (with calcium, iron, niacin (vitamin b3), thiamin (vitamin b1)), natural flavourings (ultra-processing marker), modified starch (ultra-processing marker), spices (black pepper, onion, white pepper, garlic), skimmed milk powder (processing marker), fat (sunflower oil (processing marker), lactose (ultra-processing marker) (from milk), milk protein (ultra-processing marker)), flavouring (ultra-processing marker), salt (processing marker), thickeners (ultra-processing marker) (guar gum (ultra-processing marker), xanthan gum (ultra-processing marker)), colour (ultra-processing marker) (plain caramel (ultra-processing marker)), red bell peppers, cream powder (from milk), whey powder (ultra-processing marker) (from milk)
Additives: E14XX Modified Starch , E150a Plain caramel , E412 Guar gum , E415 Xanthan gum
As written on the pack
wheat flour (with calcium, iron, niacin (vitamin b3), thiamin (vitamin b1)), natural flavourings, modified starch, spices (black pepper (5%), onion powder, white pepper (3%), garlic powder), skimmed milk powder, fat powder (sunflower oil, lactose (from milk), milk protein), flavouring, salt, thickeners (guar gum, xanthan gum), colour (plain caramel), dried red bell peppers, cream powder (from milk), whey powder (from milk).
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.
- E14xx Modified Starch Modified starches (E1400 to E1452) are starches treated physically, with enzymes or chemically so that they thicken and hold up to heating, freezing or acidity better than ordinary starch.
- E150a Plain caramel Plain caramel is a brown colour made by heating sugars.
- E412 Guar gum Guar gum is a thickener ground from the seeds of the guar plant.
- E415 Xanthan gum Xanthan gum is a thickener made by fermenting sugar with the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris.
- 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.
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- Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.
- 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.
- Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
- Milk proteins Milk proteins are proteins separated from milk, such as caseinates and whey protein concentrates, added to adjust texture or raise protein content.
- Whey Whey is the liquid left over from cheese making, usually dried into a powder and used as a cheap source of milk solids, protein and lactose.
4 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.
- Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
- Milk powder Milk powder is milk with the water evaporated off: a preserved form of a whole food rather than an industrial extract.
Among 2,962 sauces
From least to most processed, this one ranks 2954th. 60% of the sauces here are ultra-processed.
About this information
- Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000225005069, last edited 27 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 E (from A, best, to E).
- General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.