Is honey ultra-processed?

Honey is group 2, a processed culinary ingredient. It is extracted from a natural source and used to sweeten other things rather than eaten as a food in its own right, which is the definition of the group.

That places it alongside sugar, golden syrup, maple syrup and agave. NOVA does not distinguish between them, because it is classifying what was done to produce them rather than what they contain. Anybody expecting honey to be ranked above table sugar here is expecting a nutrition judgement, and this is not one.

What is group 4

• Honey-flavoured products, where the sweetness comes from a syrup and a flavouring.
• Squeezy blends of honey and glucose syrup, which are sold beside honey and are a different product.
• Anything with added flavourings or colours.

Honey is also worth a note for a different reason: it keeps almost indefinitely when sealed, because it is very low in water and slightly acidic, so it needs no preservative to do what a manufactured product would need additives for.

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.