Is Tesco Finest Lemon all butter shortbread fingers ultra-processed?

Shortbread Sold in the United Kingdom

It's processed, but not ultra-processed

1 Unprocessed
2 Kitchen staple
3 Processed
4 Ultra-processed

Whole foods combined with:

Butter
Salt
Starch
Sugar

13 ingredients
No additives
Nutri-Score E

Less processed sweet snacks

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

Wheat Flour, Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin, Butter (processing marker), Sugar (processing marker), Maize Starch (processing marker), Sicilian Lemon Oil 0.6%, Salt (processing marker), including cereals containing gluten, v storage

As written on the pack

Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Butter (Milk) (30%), Sugar, Maize Starch, Sicilian Lemon Oil (0.6%), Salt. Allergy Advice For allergens, including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in bold. V Suitable for vegetarians STORAGE

What makes it processed

Culinary ingredients

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.
Starch Starch extracted from cereals or potatoes, used to thicken.
Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.

Category rules

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

Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.

How the NOVA groups work

Among 64 shortbread

From least to most processed, this one ranks 31st. 33% of the shortbread 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 64 shortbread, least processed first

About this information

Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5059697682568, 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.