Ultra-processed foods, also referred to as ultra-processed food products (UPP), are food and drink products that have undergone specified types of

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

, usually by

transnational Transnational may refer to: * Transnational company * Transnational crime * Transnational feminism * Transnational governance * Transnationality * Transnational marriage * Transnational organization * Transnational organized crime * Transnational ...

and other very large ' Big food' corporations. These foods are designed to be "convenient, eaten on the go, hyperpalatable and appealing to consumers, and, most importantly, the most profitable segment of Big food companies' portfolios because of these foods' low-cost ingredients". Ultra-processed foods are connected to obesity, other health issues, food access and insecurity issues and contributes to some of the other

environmental impacts Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

industrial agriculture Industrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops and animals and animal products like eggs or milk. The methods of industrial agriculture include innovation in agricultural machinery and far ...

. Some countries have begun regulating ultraprocessed foods through labeling and restrictions on their sale.

Definition

The concept of ultra-processed food was initially developed and the term coined by the Brazilian nutrition researcher Carlos Monteiro, with his team at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (NUPENS) at the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the best ...

, Brazil. They argue that "the issue is not food, nor nutrients, so much as processing," and "from the point of view of human health, at present, the most salient division of food and drinks is in terms of their type, degree, and purpose of processing." Specifications and definitions of ultra-processed foods are available in reports published by United Nations agencies, most recently in 2019, in the literature, in the Open Food Facts database, and in the media. They include: * Carbonated soft drinks, such as

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

* Sweet, fatty or salty packaged snacks, such as Cheetos and potato chips * Candies (

confectionery Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

), such as Snickers and Butterfinger * Mass-produced packaged breads and buns, such as Wonder Bread and other White bread *

Cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...

s (

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...

s), such as

Oreo Oreo () (stylized as OREO) is a brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two biscuits or cookie pieces with a sweet creme filling. It was introduced by Nabisco on March 6, 1912, and through a series of corporate acquisitions, mergers and split ...

Pastries Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...

, such as Pepperidge Farm and

Franz Family Bakeries United States Bakery, better known as Franz Family Bakeries, is a bread and pastry manufacturer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Franz Bakery was founded in 1906. U.S. Bakery also owns the Northwest regional bread brands Williams', Gai's, and S ...

Cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

s and cake mixes, such as

Duncan Hines Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an Americans, American pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name. Early life Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentu ...

and Pillsbury *

Margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

and other spreads, such as

Smart Balance Smart Balance is a company that manufactures products including margarine substitutes, flavored microwave popcorn, and peanut butter. Products The products claim to have no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils added, no trans fat, and to be co ...

and

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is a brand of a spreadable emulsion of vegetable oil in water with butter flavorCalvani Terry. ''Antitrust Law Journal'', 1989, "Advertising Regulation: The States v. FTC. "...a nationally distributed butter subs ...

* Sweetened

breakfast cereal Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in ...

s, such as

Cocoa Puffs Cocoa Puffs is an American brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal, manufactured by General Mills. Introduced in 1956, the cereal consists of small orbs of corn and rice flavored with cocoa. Cocoa Puffs have the same shape as K ...

and Lucky Charms * Sweetened fruit yoghurt and energy drinks, such as

Go-Gurt Go-Gurt (stylized as Go-GURT), also known as Yoplait Tubes in Canada and as Frubes in Britain and Ireland, is an American brand of low-fat yogurt for children. It can be sucked out of a tube, instead of being eaten with a spoon. It was introduced ...

and

Monster Energy Monster Energy is an energy drink that was created by Hansen Natural Company (now Monster Beverage Corporation) in April 2002. As of March 2019, Monster Energy had a 35% share of the energy drink market, the second highest share after Red Bull ...

* Powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles, and desserts, such as Cup Noodles and

Campbell's Soup Company Campbell Soup Company, trade name, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has gro ...

* Pre-prepared meat, cheese, pasta and pizza dishes, such as

Ball Park Franks Ball Park Franks is an American brand of hot dogs made by Tyson Foods and popularized in 1958 by the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball. Ball Park Frank is the most consumed hot dog in America with 94.9 million consumers in 2017. In 2022, ...

and

Jimmy Dean (brand) Jimmy Dean Foods is a food company that was founded in 1969 by country singer and actor Jimmy Dean. It was purchased by Sara Lee, which then divested as part of a unit known as Hillshire Brands, which was later purchased by Tyson Foods. History Dea ...

* Poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, such as Tyson Foods and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

Sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

s, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, such as

Spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

and

Slim Jim (snack food) Slim Jim is an American snack brand sold globally and manufactured by Conagra Brands. They are widely available and popular in the United States, with 2015 revenues of $575 million. About 569 million of the cylindrical meat sticks are produced an ...

NOVA food classification

The NOVA (a name, not an acronym) food classification system is based on the nature, extent and purpose of industrial food processing. The groups are: # Unprocessed or minimally processed foods # Processed culinary ingredients # Processed foods # Ultra processed food and drink products Processing as such is essential, and virtually all food is processed in some way. The term ultra-processing refers to the processing of industrial ingredients derived from foods, for example by

extruding Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex ...

, moulding, re-shaping,

hydrogenation Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a Catalysis, catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to redox, reduce or S ...

, and hydrolysis. Ultra-processed foods generally also include

additives Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with fi ...

such as

preservative A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...

s, sweeteners, sensory enhancers, colourants, flavours, and processing aids, but little or no whole food. They may be fortified with

micronutrient Micronutrients are nutrient, essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for exam ...

s. The aim is to create durable, convenient and palatable ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat food products suitable to be consumed as snacks or to replace freshly-prepared food-based dishes and meals. Junkfoodanditseffect

Economics

Ultra-processed foods are an important part of food corporation portfolios because they rely on low cost ingredients and often enjoy higher profit margins. They are designed for broad consumer appeal. While instant noodles are often used as a base carbohydrate in regular meals, many ultra-processed foods are often discretionary foods, for snacking between meals. Ultra-processed foods typically benefit from extended shelf life, an important consideration for lower income consumers without reliable access to refrigeration. Among other reasons for the popularity of ultra-processed foods are the inexpensive cost of their main ingredients and aggressive marketing, especially toward youth consumers and particularly in middle income countries. A report from Global Health Advocacy Incubator documents the food industry’s strategies to defeat warning labels on ultra-processed food products (UPP).

Impacts

Epidemiological studies published since 2012 carried out in countries including

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the UK,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

consistently show that increasing or high consumption of ultra-processed food is associated with reduction of diet quality or increased incidence variously of

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

or chronic non-communicable conditions and diseases such as

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

hypertension Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

, some

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

s, and with earlier mortality. A randomised controlled trial carried out by researchers from the

US National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

published in 2019 has found that consumption of ultra-processed foods causes increased energy intake and increased fat and total

body weight Human body weight is a person's mass or weight. Strictly speaking, body weight is the measurement of weight without items located on the person. Practically though, body weight may be measured with clothes on, but without shoes or heavy accessor ...

. Four Latin American countries—Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and Ecuador—have so far published national official dietary guidelines that recommend avoiding ultra-processed foods. Ultra-processed foods are identified as harmful to health in a 2019 official government report from France and as published in 2020 by the World Bank. Ultra-processed foods have higher environmental impacts than fresh foods.

Appraisals

The utility of the NOVA classification and its concept of ultra-processing has been subject to criticism. Most published criticisms of NOVA has come from authors associated in some way with the manufacturers of ultra-processed food, their representative organisations, or organisations they support. A 2018 ''BMJ'' editorial comments:

Ultra-processed foods is a broad (and potentially rapidly changing) food category that includes multiple foods prepared by a variety of methods and containing a myriad of nutrients and food additives

A 2019 report published by the

UN Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

concludes in part: "More epidemiological research is especially needed on the impact of ultra-processed food intake on the health and well-being of infants, children and adolescents including its effects on both diet-related chronic NCDs and also on undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. More cohort studies on obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancer and other diseases will enable meta-analyses of their association with ultra-processed food intake and estimation of disease-specific pooled relative risks." Independent assessments generally conclude that further research should guide

public policies Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and Social issue, real-world problems, guided by a co ...

and actions, and not delay them. Such actions should include statutory—including fiscal—measures designed to make unprocessed and less processed food more available and affordable, to encourage consumption of freshly-prepared meals, to eliminate all subsidies and price support schemes that make ultra-processed food artificially cheap, and to regulate and restrict its manufacture and marketing.

Media coverage

A French longitudinal study from the Nutri Net Santé group published in 2018 showing a

correlation In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistics ...

between ultra-processed food and

risk prompted some media outlets to run alarmist headlines claiming that eating such food may raise

risk, or does raise risk—these headlines were based on a common misunderstanding between correlation and causation. Media coverage of ultra-processed food, and ultra-processing and the NOVA food classification generally has been very extensive since publication beginning in 2018 of a series of French studies undertaken by the Nutri Net Santé group, and publication in 2019 of the

randomised controlled trial A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical t ...

of ultra-processed food and increases in body weight and fat. This includes briefings from scientific centres and expert organisations, reports in many countries on television and radio, newspapers and magazines, videos, podcasts, blogs, and commentary on the internet, some of which has been summarised and quoted. As reported on US

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, senior US researchers were impressed by the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

study.

Dariush Mozaffarian Dariush Mozaffarian (born August 19, 1969) is a cardiologist, Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Professor of Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, and an attending physician at Tufts M ...

, Dean of Tufts University's

Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (also called the ''Friedman School'') at Tufts University brings together biomedical, nutritional, clinical, social, and behavioral scientists to conduct research, e ...

, said: "These are landmark findings, that processing of foods makes a huge difference in how much a person eats".

Barry Popkin Barry Michael Popkin (born May 23, 1944) is an American nutrition and obesity researcher at the Carolina Population Center and the W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition (as well as Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Glo ...

, of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, who like

was not involved in the NIH study, said: "The difference in weight gain for one group and weight loss for the other during these two periods is phenomenal. This is a very important study and a major challenge to the global food industry and the food science profession".

Definition

NOVA food classification

Economics

Impacts

Appraisals

Media coverage

References

Further reading

See also