The cereal aisle has a reputation as the worst shelf in the supermarket. It is more mixed than that. The frosted, chocolate and character-branded ranges are as ultra-processed as anything sold, but a surprising number of the plainest boxes have no additives at all — including some of the oldest and least fashionable brands.
Every product below lists zero additives, checked against Open Food Facts and then against the live Cull database. One of them scores 28, and that is the most useful row in the table.
UK cereals with no additives
| Product | NOVA | Live score |
|---|---|---|
| Quaker — Porridge Oats100% rolled oats | 1 | See score |
| Flahavan's — Organic Jumbo Oats | 1 | See score |
| Nestlé — Shredded Wheat100% wholegrain wheat, one ingredient | 1 | See score |
| Dorset Cereals — Simply Nutty Muesli | 1 | See score |
| Weetabix — Weetabix | 3 | See score |
| Aldi Harvest Morn — Wheat Bisks | 3 | See score |
| Tesco — Bran Flakes | 3 | See score |
| Kellogg's — Corn FlakesNo additives, and the lowest score here — see below | 3 | See score |
Ingredient lists checked 31 July 2026 against Open Food Facts and the live Cull database. We do not print a score here: scores move when our scoring changes, not only when a recipe does, so a number typed into this page would go stale without anything about the food changing. Follow any row to see what Cull scores it today. Recipes change without notice and supermarket own-brands are reformulated regularly — scan the pack in front of you rather than trusting any list, including this one. Scores are Cull's own standard, not an official rating.
The Corn Flakes problem
Kellogg's Corn Flakes contains maize, barley malt extract, sugar, salt and added vitamins. No colours, no flavourings, no emulsifiers, no sweeteners. By the standard of this article it is a clean label, and it is not ultra-processed — NOVA group 3.
It scores 28 out of 100.
Nothing has gone wrong. The score is measuring nutrition, and the nutrition is refined maize with added sugar and salt and very little fibre. Meanwhile plain porridge oats — also additive-free, also unglamorous — scores 90. Two products, the same clean label, a 62-point gap.
This is the single best argument against the way most food scanners work. Count additives and those two cereals look identical. That is not a rounding error in the method; it is the method missing the thing that actually matters for breakfast.
Why oats are NOVA 1 and Weetabix is NOVA 3
Rolled oats are a NOVA group 1 food: a grain altered only by rolling, nothing added. Shredded Wheat is the same story with one ingredient on the pack.
Weetabix, Bran Flakes and Wheat Bisks add malted barley extract, sugar and salt. Those are group 2 culinary ingredients — the same category as the salt in bread and the oil in a dressing — and adding them makes a food group 3. Processed, not ultra-processed, and not a criticism. Group 3 is where most of what humans have called cooking has always lived.
The step to group 4 needs a cosmetic additive: a colour, a flavouring, a sweetener, an emulsifier doing a formulation's work. That is what separates these boxes from the ones two shelves down. Our additives guide sets out which classes count.
How to use a list like this
Treat additive-free as a filter, not a finish line. It narrows the shelf usefully — it removes the formulated products — and then you still have to look at fibre, sugar and salt, because a clean label is entirely compatible with a poor breakfast.
That is why Cull reports nutrition, additive risk and processing as three separate things rather than one number pretending to be a verdict. Scan the box in front of you: recipes change, own-brands get reformulated, and no list — including this one — stays accurate forever.