Are crumpets ultra-processed?
The traditional recipe is group 3. Most packs are not.
A crumpet is a simple thing on paper: flour, water, yeast, salt and a raising agent to make the holes. That would be group 3.
Most supermarket packs are group 4, and for the same reason as tortilla wraps: the product has to stay soft and safe for a week or more. Preservatives, usually calcium propionate, and emulsifiers are what achieve that.
- Flour, water, yeast, salt, bicarbonate of soda: group 3.
- Preservative, emulsifier, or a flour treatment agent: group 4.
- Crumpets from a bakery counter are more often group 3, having a shorter life.
- Pikelets, muffins and potato cakes follow the same test.
The pattern is now familiar across this whole family: the shelf life is the thing being bought, and the additives are what deliver it. It shows up in bread, wraps, crumpets and most of the bakery aisle.
Working this out from a receipt is harder than from a packet, because a till prints about twenty characters of product name and no ingredients list. That is the problem Bagged exists to solve, and how a receipt is structured explains why it is the hard part.
Common questions
- Are crumpets worse than bread?
- Neither is worse; NOVA does not rank. Both split on the same test, and both are usually group 4 in supermarket packs for the same reason.
One photo of a receipt answers this for your own shopping.
Bagged reads every line and reports what share of your food spend was ultra-processed, and which items it was.
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