Key findings
- 1Homemade buttermilk biscuits need 5 ingredients; canned biscuits list many more, including dough conditioners, flavorings, and vegetable oils
- 2The pressurized tube packaging of canned biscuits demands extensive dough conditioning and preservatives to maintain viability for months
- 3The flaky layers in homemade biscuits come from cold butter and minimal handling; in canned biscuits, they come from chemical emulsifiers and dough conditioners
Why is Biscuits ultra-processed on average?
The processing gap between homemade and commercial biscuits is one of the widest in the baked goods category. A Southern buttermilk biscuit uses five ingredients: self-rising flour (or flour, baking powder, and salt), cold butter, and buttermilk. The technique (cutting cold butter into flour, adding buttermilk, minimal handling) creates flaky layers through simple physics, not chemistry. Canned biscuits typically replace butter with palm oil and other vegetable oils, add dough conditioners such as DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides), include flavorings, and use chemical leavening systems with sodium aluminum phosphate. The dough must survive months of pressurized storage in the cardboard tube while keeping its ability to rise when baked, and that shelf-stability requirement drives most of the additive complexity. Frozen biscuits usually sit between the two extremes. In our analysis, biscuit products average a Processing Score of 10.0, which is Level 4.
How 358 biscuits products break down
Share of products at each processing level, in our analysis.
Biscuits brand comparison
From least to most processed in our database.
How to read a biscuits label
- 1
Homemade biscuits need only flour, butter, buttermilk, baking powder, and salt, 5 ingredients
- 2
Canned biscuits replace butter with palm oil and other vegetable oils; check the ingredient list
- 3
DATEM is a dough conditioner found in canned biscuits that would never appear in a home recipe
- 4
Frozen biscuits are typically less processed than canned, and some brands use simpler ingredient lists
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Frequently asked questions
Are Pillsbury biscuits ultra-processed?
Canned biscuits such as Pillsbury Grands list enriched bleached flour, vegetable oils, dough conditioners, flavorings, and leavening acids such as sodium aluminum phosphate, the kinds of ingredients our Processing Score counts. In our analysis, biscuit products average a Processing Score of 10.0, which is Level 4. Search Pillsbury to see each product's own score.
Are frozen biscuits better than canned?
Frozen biscuits are generally less processed than canned. They do not need the extreme dough conditioning required for pressurized tube storage, and some frozen brands use shorter ingredient lists that are closer to a homemade recipe.
How do I make biscuits from scratch?
Cut cold butter into self-rising flour (or flour with baking powder and salt), stir in buttermilk until just combined, pat out to 1-inch thickness, cut, and bake at 450F for 12-15 minutes. The entire process takes under 20 minutes and uses 5 ingredients, far fewer than a can of biscuits lists.