Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Tesco Sweet & Sour Sauce ultra-processed?

120g Sweet and sour sauces Sold in the United Kingdom

Pack of Tesco Sweet & Sour Sauce

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:

  • 20 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score C

Less processed sweet and sour sauces

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, Pineapple 8%, Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Yellow Onion, Fructose Syrup, Modified Maize Starch, Water, Salt, er Strips 1.5% (Ginger Acidity Regulator (Acetic Acid)), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Thickener (Xanthan Gum), Colour (Paprika Extract)

Additives: E160c Paprika extract , E260 Acetic acid , E330 Citric acid , E415 Xanthan gum

As written on the pack

Water, Sugar, Pineapple (8%), Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Yellow Onion, Fructose Syrup, Modified Maize Starch, Salted Water, Salt, er Strips (1.5%) [Ginger Acidity Regulator (Acetic Acid)], Salt, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Thickener Xanthan Gum), Colour (Paprika Extract). Allergy Advice May contain sesame seeds, peanuts and nuts.

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.

  • E160c Paprika extract Paprika extract is a red-orange colour extracted from paprika peppers.
  • 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.
  • 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.

  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn 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

Among 17 sweet and sour sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 17th. 88% of the sweet and sour sauces 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 17 sweet and sour sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5052109996673, 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 C (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.