Is Waitrose Soft & buttery sliced brioche loaf ultra-processed?
Yes, it's ultra-processed
- 1 Unprocessed
- 2 Kitchen staple
- 3 Processed
- 4 Ultra-processed
Signs of ultra-processing in its ingredients:
- 16 ingredients
- 3 additives
- Nutri-Score E
Less processed brioches
Ingredients
Ultra-processing Processing
Wheat flour, water, free range egg, sugar (processing marker), concentrated butter, invert sugar syrup (ultra-processing marker), emulsifier (ultra-processing marker) (mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (ultra-processing marker)), salt (processing marker), flavourings (ultra-processing marker), yeast, wheat gluten (ultra-processing marker), thickener (ultra-processing marker) (cellulose (ultra-processing marker)), flour treatment agent (ascorbic acid)
Additives: E300 Ascorbic acid , E460 Cellulose , E471 Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids
As written on the pack
Wheat flour, water, pasteurised free range egg, sugar, concentrated butter (milk) (7%), invert sugar syrup, emulsifier (mono - and diglycerides of fatty acids), salt, flavourings, yeast, wheat gluten, thickener (cellulose), flour treatment agent (ascorbic acid)
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.
- E460 Cellulose A food additive used to dissolve, dilute, disperse or otherwise physically modify a food additive or nutrient without altering its function -and without exerting any technological effect itself- in order to facilitate its handling, application or use of the food additive or nutrient.
- E471 Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids are made from fats and glycerol.
- 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.
- Thickener Thickeners, often gums or modified starches, make liquids more viscous so that a product feels richer than its ingredients alone would make it.
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.
- Gluten Wheat gluten, sold as "vital wheat gluten", is the protein washed out of wheat flour.
- Invert sugar Invert sugar is ordinary sugar split into glucose and fructose with acid or enzymes.
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.
Among 61 brioches
From least to most processed, this one ranks 39th. 97% of the brioches here are ultra-processed.
About this information
- Data from this product on Open Food Facts (barcode 5000169577158, 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.