What is in your UPF-free pantry cupboard?

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I've been slowly working on reducing and removing UPFs from our family's diet. Found some UPF in unexpected places like our old tinned tomatoes!

What UPF-free items do you have in your pantry cupboard?

I thought tinned tomatoes were classed as processed but not ultra-processed, or at least that's how they're classified in the document I have stuck up inside one of my cupboards (the Nova food classification).
Without checking, I have pulses, rice, oats, couscous, pasta, tinned fish, nuts, honey, the usual baking ingredients...

Lots of different nuts, seeds, dried fruit, oats, lentils, a trillion herbs and spices.

tinned tomatoes are not a UPF

Organic tomato ketchup, organic baked beans, Stoke's mayonnaise, sauce shop sauces, Kallo stock cubes, M&S frozen stock broth, Rock's squash, ready salted crisps.

I think some of these might not completely meet the UPF free standard (can't remember exactly) but were good swaps.

Tinned tomatos can be upf free just check the label we have mutti. Also lots of different tinned beans, tinned fish, dried lentils, different grains, hunter gather mayo, nuts and seeds.

We swapped to Multi Polpa too as believd it was UPF free...but until just now (thanks @Forgottenmyphone ), I'd not heard of the Nova Food Classification and just checked it. Our old tinned tomatoes had a Nova score as 1 (low/free UPF), but the Mutti Polpa have a Nova score of 3 (procesed)!

So I'm now very confused 🤔

Can anyone help clear that up?

Which tinned tomatoes do you use that are not UPF please?

Nuts, seeds, oats, rice, beans, peanut butter, cocoa powder (good with oranges, cream, Greek yoghurt and honey)

Thank you.

I've discovered The Sauce Shop sauces and Kallo stock cubes I'm pleased with those! 👌

Squash is on my hit list to tackle, I've not heard of Rock's before, will check that out.

Peanut butter we swapped for Pip & Nut which we looove.

Which do you use?

Coconut cream in a block (rather than tinned coconut milk)

Pasta/rice/oats/flour

hunter and gather mayonnaise, peanut butter, dried mushrooms, honey, tinned legumes (just in water and salt), roast peppers in vinegar, nuts, rye crackers

There's an interesting app called YUKA (icon looks like a carrot) and you can scan the bar code and it tells you if it is Excellent. Good, Poor or Bad and what it contains.

I've scanned everything in our cupboards, oddly Pom Bears are 'Poor' and kettle crisps are 'Good'.

It becomes a bit addictive, I've started scanning things in the supermarket now too!

Hellmann’s ketchup, Stokes mayo/sainsburys organic mayo, nuts, seeds, porridge oats, rice, pasta, lentils, Aldi peanut butter 100% nuts (big tub only £3.99).

The one thing I cannot find is decent wraps. We tried the Costa & Mollica ones but they’re so small and also lately have been really crumbly. I tried making my own and they were hard so couldn’t fold them. What does everyone else use?

We get organic PB from ASDA. It’s super cheap and the nicest we’ve tried!

I understand that the tins are lined with plastic? We’re trying to decide on an alternative at the mo!

Squash is on my hit list to tackle,

I love elderflower squash

so I collect elder at the end of May beginning June and buy caster sugar - then make cordial. It’s cheap and lasts well

I’ve just downloaded the Yuka app and am scanning everything in sight!
Most of the results are as you’d imagine, but I was a bit sad that it disapproves of Nairn’s seeded oat cakes.
Mutti polpo is absolutely fine, btw. No additives.

I’ve had the yuka app for a while, the trouble is, I’ve found, is that some products are red just because they are slightly high in fat/salt/sugar, but I prefer that to it being red for the harmful additives. I wish there was a way to separate the two. We don’t have a lot of sugar/salt in our meals so I don’t mind the odd high sugar/salt products. It’s the artificial additives I don’t want.

Tinned tomatoes are generally not considered Upf - but people that are strict agree that the mutti ones or others that are 100% tomatoes (Aldi do one) are the best.

Yuka app isn't good for identifying Upf - open food is better, but better still to understand what makes something Upf rather than rely on an app.

For squash, I get Belvoir.
Recently picked up Elderflower Cordial in Ikea, it's nice and refreshing...if i remember correctly, that should be upf free

What was in the tomatoes that made them UPF?
I just buy whatever standard ones are in Lidl and it's just tomatoes, tomato juice and citric acid.

Re. the nova classification, level 3 is fine as it's just processed. It's UPF -level 4 - that is best avoided.

We try to be UPF free, but we're not totally strict. E.g. kids and dh still have flora and oat milk. I refuse to ditch marmite!

In our cupboards we have:
-Lots of different types of starches, nuts and seeds
-Pasta, lots of different types

• 25kg bag of bread flour
• baking bits such as baking powder, yeast etc
• tins of beans
• olive oil
• dried herbs which I bulk buy
• homemade seasoning mixes
• miso, soya sauce, toasted sesame oil, mirin rice vinegar

My freezer does a lot of the heavy lifting!

• homemade stock cubes
• ginger
• chillies
• bags of chopped fresh herbs
• portioned up pre-cooked rice & lentils mix (makes it easier to go for non-white rice)
• lots of frozen chopped veg, e.g. leeks, spinach etc.

I am happy to have tins of fruit as well (in juice not syrup). They make a great quick pudding.

Like others we swapped to Kallo stock cubes and Dr Wills ketchup. I also have the usual, rice, pasta, tinned toms, sweetcorn, herbs & spices.

The DC weren't keen on Rocks squash, but like Belvoir and I occasionally have roses lime cordial.

To save time I keep a lot of frozen veg, including chopped onions, garlic etc, along with cream or cottage cheese to use in sauces, and whilst we mostly avoid UPF, I do keep gravy granules and chocolate biscuits on standby.

I started with reducing plastic around the home first, then paused for reducing UPF food, next will be reducing PFAS and a revisit on plastic! Good luck in your journey 😊

I tried Yuka once after hearing loads of people rave about how enlightening it is. It told me that soya yoghurt (with about 12 ingredients including some that I would consider to be UPF) was a better choice than plain greek yoghurt (1 ingredient).

People just need to read the ingredients list and make their own decisions. It's really not hard.