Is jam ultra-processed?

Standard jam is group 3: fruit boiled with sugar, sometimes with added pectin and a little citric acid. Sugar is a group 2 culinary ingredient and does not move a product on its own.

Pectin is the interesting one

Pectin occurs naturally in fruit and is what makes jam set. Added pectin is extracted from fruit, usually apple or citrus peel, so it sits closer to a culinary ingredient than to an additive and does not by itself move jam to group 4. Some classifications treat added gelling agents more strictly, which is a good illustration of the reproducibility problem the pillar describes.

What does move it

• Non-sugar sweeteners in reduced-sugar jams: group 4.
• Flavourings and colourings: group 4.
• Glucose-fructose syrup in cheaper products: usually group 4.
• Chocolate and nut spreads are group 4, being emulsions with added fats and emulsifiers.

Marmalade follows the same rules, and honey is group 2 on its own, being a food used to sweeten rather than a formulation.

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.