Are protein bars ultra-processed?
Group 4 by construction. The protein source is why.
Effectively always group 4, and this one is structural rather than incidental.
The protein is the reason
A protein bar exists to deliver a protein figure, and that figure comes from whey, milk, soya or pea protein isolate: protein separated from the food it came in. A substance extracted from a food, rather than a food, is the definition of a group 4 ingredient.
Everything else compounds it. Humectants keep the bar soft for months, non-sugar sweeteners keep the sugar figure down, and flavourings and coatings do the rest.
The same reasoning puts most high-protein yoghurt in group 4, and for exactly the same reason.
The exceptions
Bars made only from dates, nuts and dried fruit are group 3, and some are group 1 if nothing at all is added. They do not usually carry a protein claim, because the protein in them is whatever the nuts contain.
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 natural or vegan protein bars different?
- Not on this test. Pea and soya protein isolates are isolates in the same way whey is, so plant-based bars sit in group 4 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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