Are frozen chips ultra-processed?
Plain chips are group 3. Coated ones are not.
Plain frozen chips are group 3, and often nothing more than potatoes and sunflower oil. Freezing adds nothing, and cutting a potato removes rather than adds.
Coated is the word to look for
Anything described as crispy, extra crispy or coated carries a batter, and that batter is where the additives are: modified starch, raising agents, stabilisers, colours such as dextrose for browning, and often flavourings. That is group 4.
- Potatoes, oil, and possibly salt: group 3.
- Coated, crispy, or steak-cut with a stated coating: group 4.
- Seasoned wedges and fries: group 4, from the seasoning.
- Croquettes, hash browns and waffles are reformed potato and are group 4.
The same split runs through crisps: a sliced potato with oil and salt is group 3, and anything reconstituted from potato flakes is group 4 by construction.
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 oven chips ultra-processed?
- Not necessarily. Plain oven chips are often just potato and oil, which is group 3. The coated and crispy varieties are group 4.
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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