Unprocessed Eats · last updated 4 September 2026
Burgers without the unnecessary extras
Unprocessed Eats ranks real supermarket products by the NOVA food-processing scale and fails anything whose label lists a numbered additive, added sugar, flavouring or emulsifier, so you can see the whole-food or minimally processed option for every ingredient in a meal.
The 9 ingredients a home cook buys for burgers, each with the cleanest real product on the shelf, and 1 where nothing passes and we give you the recipe instead.
Beef Mince Whole food available
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Bulk Beef Steak Mince
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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Prime Beef Mince
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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NZ Premium Beef Mince
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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First Light Wagyu Beef Mince
Ingredients: Wagyu Beef Mince
Sliced Bread Best option is minimally processed
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Real Bread Kitchen Pioneer Organic Spelt Bread
Ingredients: Wheat flour, Spelt flour, water, salt (iodised)grain milled into flour
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Real Bread Kitchen Smoked Manuka Bread
Ingredients: Wheat flour, rye flour, barley malt, water, saltgrain milled into flour
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Real Bread Kitchen Canterbury Multigrain Bread
Ingredients: Wheat flour, water, salt (iodised), kibbled wheat & rye grain, linseedsgrain milled into flour
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Vogel's Sunflower & Barley Toast Bread
Ingredients: Wheat flour, water, mixed grains (16%) (wheat, rye), sunflower seeds (6%), barley (3%), wheat gluten, canola oil, yeast, iodised salt, white vinegar, cultured wheat, vitamin (folic acid).contains canola; sunflower — our cap, not NOVA
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Vogel's Sprouted Harvest Grains Toast Bread
Ingredients: Water, wheat flour, mixed grains (15%) (wheat, rye), sprouted whole grains (8%) (barley, wheat, rye), wheat gluten, canola oil, sunflower seeds (2%), linseeds (2%), white vinegar, iodised salt, yeast, cultured wheat, vitamin (folic acid).contains canola; sunflower — our cap, not NOVA
Cheddar Or Tasty Cheese Best option is minimally processed
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Dairyworks Tasty Natural Block Cheese
Ingredients: Pasteurised Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzyme (Non-Animal Rennet)fermented and salted
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Talbot Forest Vintage Cheddar Cheese
Ingredients: Pasteurised Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzyme (Non-Animal Rennet)fermented and salted
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Westminster Farmhouse English Cheddar Cheese
Ingredients: Pasteurized Cow's Milk, Starter Cultures, Salt, Rennet.fermented and salted
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Whitestone Cheese Co Totara Tasty Cheese
Ingredients: Pasteurised Cows Milk, Salt, Microbial Rennet, Culturesfermented and salted
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Mainland Tasty Aged Cheddar Cheese
Ingredients: Milk, Salt, Cultures (Milk), Enzyme (Animal Rennet)fermented and salted
Lettuce Whole food available
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NZ Iceberg Lettuce
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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Pams Iceberg Lettuce
Ingredients: Iceberg Lettuce
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Pams Baby Leaf Lettuce
Ingredients: A selection of oak, cos, coral, butterhead, batavia and frillice lettuce leaves.
Fresh Tomatoes Whole food available
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Beekist Angel Naturally Sweet Tomatoes
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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T&G Sunburst Tomatoes
Ingredients: Sunburst Tomatoes
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Pams Sweet Temptation Tomatoes
Ingredients: Sweet Temptation Tomatoes.
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Loose Red Tomatoes
Ingredients: TOMATOES
Onion Whole food available
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Brown Onions
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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Fresh Direct NZ Onions
Fresh produce or meat, no ingredients panel needed.
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Summit Produce Red Onions Prepack
Ingredients: Raw Onions 100%
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Pams Shell On Brown Onions
Ingredients: Onions
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New Zealand Baby Red Onions
Ingredients: ONION
Tomato Sauce Or Ketchup No clean option: make it yourself
Nothing in this store passes for tomato sauce or ketchup. We read the label on all 27 products and every one carries an additive.
- Barker's The Better Original Tomato Sauce: Tomato (78%) (Concentrate), Sugar, White Vinegar, Thickener (1442), Salt, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Yeast Extract, Natural Flavour, Herb, Onion Powder, Spice
- Chantal Organics Tomato Ketchup: Tomato Concentrate from Select Ripe Tomatoes (67%), Sugar, Vinegar, Salt, Spices, Onion Powder
- Del Monte Original Style Tomato Sauce: Water, tomato paste, sugar, vinegar, modified starch, Iodized salt, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), spices, Potassium Sorbate (preservative), nature- identical flavors, Citric Acid (Acidity Regulator), Disodium Inosinate (Flavor enhancer), FD&C Red No.40.
Mayonnaise Cannot call it
We can't call this one. 44 of the 48 products we found fail on their labels, but 4 have no ingredients panel published online, so we won't claim there is nothing clean here.
Pickles Or Gherkins Cannot call it
We can't call this one. 11 of the 12 products we found fail on their labels, but 1 has no ingredients panel published online, so we won't claim there is nothing clean here.
How Unprocessed Eats works
What does "minimally processed" mean here?
We use the NOVA classification from the University of São Paulo. Group 1 is a whole food or one that has only been cleaned, cut, dried, frozen or pasteurised. Group 2 is a culinary ingredient pressed or extracted from a whole food, like olive oil, salt or honey. Group 3 is a few of those combined, like cheese or tinned beans in brine. Group 4 is ultra-processed. We show groups 1 to 3 and rank group 1 first.
What makes a product fail?
Any numbered additive on the label (colours, preservatives, acidity regulators, gums, modified starches, raising agents, flavour enhancers, sweeteners), plus anything named as a flavouring, emulsifier or lecithin, and added sugars. We read the retailer's published ingredients panel and print it verbatim so you can check our working.
Why is plain sugar marked as failing?
Because added sugar is one of the things the rule fails a product for, sugar as an ingredient fails too. Honey and pure maple syrup pass as group 2 culinary ingredients. This is a deliberate choice about what we recommend, not a claim that sugar is an additive.
What about seed oils like canola and sunflower?
Under NOVA a refined seed oil is a group 2 culinary ingredient, the same group as olive oil, so it does not make a food ultra-processed. We still cap any product containing canola, sunflower, soybean, rice bran, palm or unspecified vegetable oil at amber and say which oil it is, so you can decide. That cap is our position, not a research finding.
The prices didn't match my local store. Why is that?
Every price comes from a single supermarket on the date shown on the page, so there will be variation across other stores and regions, and prices move between our checks. Each product links to its page on the retailer's site for today's price, and services like grocer.nz show the price at your local store.
A product I use isn't in the list. Why is that?
If your product is a whole food or additive-free, it may be that it is not sold at general supermarkets, or not at the store we checked. If we have missed something, email us at hello@phasefood.com.
What does "nothing in this store passes" mean?
We only say it when we found the product category on the shelf, read the ingredients panel on every product in it, and every one failed. If any panel was missing or unreadable we say we cannot call it instead. Where nothing passes, PhaseFood gives you the recipe to make it yourself.
Does any brand pay to appear?
No. Products are ranked by how little has been done to the food, then by how few ingredients, then by price. No brand has paid for placement and none can.
Where nothing on the shelf passes, we give you the recipe
Your first five recipes are free with a PhaseFood account. We count recipes, not views.
Try it with your own meal