Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Tesco 2 Custard Slices ultra-processed?

Two slices at 94g per slice Desserts Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Tesco 2 Custard Slices

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:

  • 34 ingredients
  • 8 additives
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed desserts

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

Water, Sugar, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Cream, Palm Oil, Milk Proteins, Cornflour, Butter, Dried Glucose Syrup, White Chocolate (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Soya Lecithins, Flavouring), Rapeseed Oil, Invert Sugar Syrup, Soya Flour, Dextrose, Glucose, Calcium Sulphate, Tetrasodium Diphosphate, Flavouring, Salt, Pectin, Sodium Alginate, Carotenes, Lutein, Concentrated Lemon Juice

Additives: E160a Carotene , E161b Lutein , E322 Lecithins , E401 Sodium alginate , E440 Pectins , E450 Diphosphates , E450iii Tetrasodium diphosphate , E516 Calcium sulphate

As written on the pack

Water, Sugar, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Cream (Milk), Palm Oil, Milk Proteins, Cornflour, Butter (Milk), Dried Glucose Syrup, White Chocolate [Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Dried Whole Milk, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins), Flavouring], Rapeseed Oil, Invert Sugar Syrup, Soya Flour, Dextrose, Glucose, Sequestrants (Calcium Sulphate, Tetrasodium Diphosphate), Flavouring, Salt, Stabiliser (Pectin), Gelling Agent (Sodium Alginate), Colours (Carotenes, Lutein), Concentrated Lemon Juice.

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.

  • E160a Carotene Carotenes are orange-yellow pigments, either synthesised or extracted from carrots, algae or palm oil.
  • E161b Lutein 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.
  • E322 Lecithins Lecithins are fatty substances extracted mostly from soybeans, sunflower seeds or eggs, used as emulsifiers to keep fat and water mixed, for example in chocolate.
  • E401 Sodium alginate A food additive used to dissolve, dilute, disperse or otherwise physically modify a food additive or nutrient without altering its function -and without exerting any technological effect itself- in order to facilitate its handling, application or use of the food additive or nutrient.
  • E440 Pectins Pectins are gelling agents extracted from citrus peel or apple pomace.
  • E450 Diphosphates Diphosphates are phosphate salts used as raising agents in baking powder, and to hold water in processed meats and cheese.
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  • Flavouring Flavourings are concentrated aroma preparations that add or intensify a taste.

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.

  • Dextrose Dextrose is pure glucose crystallised from starch-derived syrup.
  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Glucose syrup Glucose syrup is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.
  • Milk proteins Milk proteins are proteins separated from milk, such as caseinates and whey protein concentrates, added to adjust texture or raise protein content.
5 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.

  • Butter Butter, the fat churned from cream.
  • Salt Salt, added for taste and preservation.
  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Vegetable fat Vegetable fats are oils that are solid at room temperature, such as palm or coconut fat.
  • Milk powder Milk powder is milk with the water evaporated off: a preserved form of a whole food rather than an industrial extract.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 2,247 desserts

From least to most processed, this one ranks 2173rd. 75% of the desserts 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 2,247 desserts, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5057545845882, last edited 25 June 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.