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Is Tesco Smoked Bacon Lardons ultra-processed?

2 x 100 g Smoked bacon Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Tesco Smoked Bacon Lardons

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:

  • 8 ingredients
  • 2 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed bacon

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

pork 87%, water, salt, antioxidant (sodium ascorbate), preservatives (sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate)

Additives: E251 Sodium nitrate , E252 Potassium nitrate

As written on the pack

pork 87%, water, salt, antioxidant (sodium ascorbate) preservatives (sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate)

What makes it processed

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.

Preservation and traditional processing

Keep food safe or ferment it, like preservatives and cultures. A sign of processing, not ultra-processing.

  • E251 Sodium nitrate Preservatives are substances which prolong the shelf-life of foods by protecting them against deterioration caused by micro-organisms and/or which protect against growth of pathogenic micro-organisms.
  • E252 Potassium nitrate Preservatives are substances which prolong the shelf-life of foods by protecting them against deterioration caused by micro-organisms and/or which protect against growth of pathogenic micro-organisms.
  • Preservative Preservatives slow spoilage by microbes.

Category rules

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

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

How the NOVA groups work

Among 26 smoked bacon

From least to most processed, this one ranks 10th. 8% of the smoked bacon 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 26 smoked bacon, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5052910079534, last edited 11 April 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.