Is it ultra-processed?
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Is Waitrose Four Cheese Sauce ultra-processed?

350 g Pasta sauces Sold in the United Kingdom and France

Pack of Waitrose Four Cheese Sauce

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:

  • 28 ingredients
  • 1 additive
  • Nutri-Score D

Less processed pasta 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

Milk, water, single cream, Grana Padano cheese 9% (milk, preservative (egg lysozyme)), provolone cheese, cornflour, pecorino cheese (ewe's milk), unsalted butter, lemon juice, onion, mascarpone cheese, wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), salt, garlic purée, mustard seeds, spirit vinegar, white pepper, potato starch, bay leaf

Additives: E1105 Lysozyme

As written on the pack

Milk, water, single cream (milk), Grana Padano cheese (9%) (milk, preservative (egg lysozyme)), provolone cheese (milk) (6%), cornflour, pecorino cheese (ewe's milk) (2%), unsalted butter (milk), lemon juice, onion, mascarpone cheese (milk) (1%), wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), salt, garlic purée, mustard seeds, spirit vinegar, white pepper, potato starch, ground bay leaf

What makes it processed

Processed ingredients

Processed foods in their own right, such as cheese or milk powder.

  • Cheese Cheese is milk preserved with salt, cultures and rennet.

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.

Preservation and traditional processing

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

How the NOVA groups work

Among 317 pasta sauces

From least to most processed, this one ranks 156th. 49% of the pasta 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 317 pasta sauces, least processed first

About this information

  • Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000169959749, last edited 14 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 D (from A, best, to E).
  • General information, not medical or dietary advice. Check the pack if you have an allergy.