Are eggs ultra-processed?
Group 1, and free-range makes no difference to it.
Eggs are group 1. Nothing has been added and nothing has been done to them beyond washing in some countries, though not in Britain.
Free-range, organic, barn and caged all sit in group 1. Those describe how the hen lived, which is a real thing to care about and is not what this classification measures.
Where it stops being an egg
- Liquid egg white or whole egg with nothing added: group 1.
- Liquid egg with stabilisers or preservatives: group 4.
- Pre-boiled and peeled eggs in a pack: group 1, unless a preservative is in the liquid.
- Omelette and egg-bite products: usually group 4, from the starches and gums.
- Dried egg powder used as an ingredient: group 2 or 4 depending on what is in it.
The reason British eggs are not in the fridge
British eggs are not washed, which leaves the natural cuticle intact and lets them sit unrefrigerated. In countries that wash eggs the coating is removed and they must then be kept cold. Not washing is the reason a UK egg is more obviously group 1 than an American one, though both are.
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 free-range eggs less processed?
- No. Free-range describes how the hen was kept. Every plain egg is group 1 regardless.
- What does the lion mark mean?
- That the hen was vaccinated against salmonella under the British Lion scheme. It is a food safety mark and says nothing about processing.
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.
Get the app