Is Alpen Ultra-Processed?

Why Alpen scores It depends

Alpen is a muesli brand made by Weetabix, and the range spans two very different categories: boxed muesli and cereal bars.

Alpen Original Swiss Style Muesli contains: Wholegrain Oat Flakes, Raisins, Sugar, Sultanas, Skimmed Milk Powder, Toasted Flaked Almonds, Toasted Hazelnuts, Honey. This is a straightforward list. Oat flakes are minimally processed (NOVA 1). Raisins and sultanas are dried fruit (NOVA 1). Sugar and honey are culinary ingredients (NOVA 2). Skimmed milk powder is a processed ingredient (NOVA 2) but crucially it is not a UPF marker — it is simply milk with water and fat removed, used in home cooking for centuries. Nuts are NOVA 1. Combining these ingredients into a packaged product makes it NOVA 3 (processed), not NOVA 4. There are zero ultra-processed markers in this product.

Alpen No Added Sugar Muesli replaces sugar with a small amount of sweetener. If the sweetener used is an artificial or novel sweetener (such as sucralose or steviol glycosides), this could push the product towards NOVA 4 depending on interpretation. Check the back of the box — if the only change is removing sugar and the sweetener is minimal, it may still sit at NOVA 3, but this is a borderline case.

Alpen Light Bars are a completely different product. They typically contain glucose syrup, sugar, humectant (glycerol), rice flour, flavourings, and emulsifiers (soya lecithin). Glucose syrup is a NOVA 4 marker. Humectants, flavourings, and emulsifiers are all hallmarks of ultra-processing. These bars are clearly NOVA 4.

Alpen Protein Bars go even further, with protein isolates (whey protein, soy protein isolate), sweeteners, flavourings, and emulsifiers. Protein isolates are substances derived from foods but not used in domestic cooking — a textbook NOVA 4 marker.

The lesson: a brand name tells you nothing about processing level. Alpen muesli (the box) and Alpen bars (the wrapper) share a name but sit in entirely different NOVA categories.