Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Tower Gate Chocolate Chunk Cookies ultra-processed?

200 g Chocolate chip cookies Sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Pack of Tower Gate Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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:

  • 21 ingredients
  • 4 additives
  • Nutri-Score E

Less processed chocolate chip cookies

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

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil (Palm Vegetable Oil, Sunflower Vegetable Oil), Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Butter, Oat Flour, Cocoa Mass, Desiccated Coconut, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Lactose, Egg, Skimmed Milk, Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithins), Raising Agents (Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates, Ammonium Carbonates), Natural Flavouring

Additives: E322 Lecithins , E450 Diphosphates , E500 Sodium carbonates , E503 Ammonium carbonates

As written on the pack

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil (Palm, Sunflower), Dried Whole Milk, Cocoa Butter, Oat Flour, Cocoa Mass, Desiccated Coconut, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Lactose (Milk), Dried Egg, Dried Skimmed Milk, Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithins), Raising Agents (Diphosphates, Sodium Carbonates, Ammonium Carbonates), Natural Flavouring.

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.

  • 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.
  • E450 Diphosphates Diphosphates are phosphate salts used as raising agents in baking powder, and to hold water in processed meats and cheese.
  • Emulsifier Emulsifiers keep fat and water from separating, giving products a smooth, stable texture over a long shelf life.
  • 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.

  • Glucose Glucose, usually listed as glucose syrup, is cheap, keeps products moist and stops sugar from crystallising.
  • Lactose Lactose is milk sugar, crystallised industrially from whey, a by-product of cheese making.
  • Fructose Fructose is the sugar found naturally in fruit and honey, but as an ingredient it is refined industrially, mostly from corn starch.
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.

  • Sugar Sugar refined from sugar cane or beet.
  • Vegetable oil Vegetable oils are pressed or extracted from seeds, nuts and fruits.
  • Sweet snacks Products in the category "Sweet snacks" are at least group 3.
  • 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 50 chocolate chip cookies

From least to most processed, this one ranks 28th. 92% of the chocolate chip cookies 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 50 chocolate chip cookies, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 4056489542957, 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.