Classifying ultra-processed food

Why should food processing matter for our health? “Processed food” is a blurry term and for years, the food industry has exploited these blurred lines as a way to defend its additive-laden products. Unless you grow, forage or catch all your own food, almost everything you consume has been processed to some extent. A pint of milk is pasteurised, a pea may be frozen. Cooking is a process. Fermentation is a process. Artisanal, organic kimchi is a processed food, and so is the finest French goat’s cheese. No big deal.

But ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are different. They are processed in ways that go far beyond cooking or fermentation, and they may also come plastered with health claims. Even a sugary multi-coloured breakfast cereal may state that it is “a good source of fibre” and “made with whole grains”. To help you get a wider picture, consider that there are four basic kinds of food, graded by the degree to which they are processed.

Taken together, these four groups form the Nova system (meaning a new star): 
The first category – group 1 – are the least processed, and includes anything from a bunch of parsley to a carrot, from a steak to a raisin. None of these things are strictly unprocessed by the time they are sold: the carrot is washed, the steak is refrigerated, the raisin is dried. To the sceptical mind, you could consider these as unprocessed and minimally processed foods.

The second group - group 2 -  is called “processed culinary ingredients”. These include butter and salt, sugar and lard, oil and flour – all used in small quantities with group 1 foods to make them more delicious: a pat of butter melting on broccoli, a sprinkling of salt on a piece of fish, a spoonful of sugar in a bowl of strawberries.

Next in the Nova system comes group 3, or “processed foods”. This category consists of foods that have been preserved, pickled, fermented or salted. Examples would be canned tomatoes and pulses, pickles, traditionally made bread (just flour, water and yeast), smoked fish and cured meats. When used sparingly, these processed foods can result in “delicious dishes” and nutritionally balanced meals.

The final category, group 4, is unlike any of the others. Group 4 foods tend to consist largely of the sugars, oils and starches from group 2, but instead of being used sparingly to make fresh food more delicious, these ingredients are now transformed through colours, emulsifiers, flavourings and other additives to become more palatable. They contain ingredients unfamiliar to domestic kitchens such as soy protein isolate (in cereal bars or shakes with added protein) and “mechanically separated meat” (turkey hotdogs, sausage rolls).

Group 4 foods differ from other foods not just in substance, but in use. Because they are aggressively promoted and ready-to-eat, these highly profitable items have vast market advantages over the minimally processed foods in group 1. Observed evidence around the world suggest that these group 4 items are liable to “replace freshly made regular meals and dishes, with snacking any time, anywhere”.

Not everyone in the world of nutrition is convinced by the Nova system of food classification. Some critics have complained that ultra-processed is just another way to describe foods that are sugary or fatty or salty or low in fibre, or all of these at once. If you look at the UPFs that are consumed in the largest quantities, the majority of them take the form of sweet treats or sugary drinks. Moreover, an ultra-processed food can be reformulated in countless ways, but the one thing it can’t be transformed into is an unprocessed food. The question is whether these foods would still be harmful if the levels of sugar and oil could be reduced. Food for thought… pun intended.

Extracts taken from Bee Wilson from https://www.theguardian.com