Ultra-processed food(2): formulations of several ingredients which, besides salt, sugar, oils and fats, include food substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular, flavours, colours, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations or to disguise undesirable qualities of the final product. 

​SYNOPSIS The public debate about junk food usually comes down to a damning indictment of all foods high in calories and rich in ‘high fat, salt and sugar’, whatever type of food you find them in. The informed debate is more nuanced and often singles out the role played by sugar, whilst adding in other refined carbohydrates, cheap vegetable seed oils and food additives.      Often an emotional topic, the quality of the debate has been recently enhanced thanks to a changed stance from the UN at the start of their Decade of Nutrition, when a food grouping known as ‘ultra-processed’ foods came sharply into focus. So are all ultra-processed foods by definition the same as junk food? And would it help if that were the case? Click here for the full 15 minute read.

The Big Read

If you know what junk food is, you can make informed choices

​        Public opinion about junk food leaves much to the imagination and brings with it confusing contradictions. In Ireland, councils desperately trying to do the right thing when it comes to childhood obesity, issue ‘no-fry zones’ which can allow a Starbucks to set up shop near a school, while banning the Fish & Chip shop – perhaps the original fast-food outlet. In New York, whole milk gets banned in schools while low-fat chocolate flavoured milk is permitted… not to mention that the school authorities now refer to whole milk as ‘full-fat’ milk.         Meanwhile, manufacturers tweak their recipes for processed foods such as sausage rolls in the UK, so that the well-meaning traffic light labelling system shows them in a good light (no pun intended). By reducing the meat content and substituting margarine for the butter or lard originally used in the flaky pastry, they can even position them as a healthy snack. Yet logic tells me that they are a form of junk food.

A singular feature of NOVA is its identification of ultra-processed food and drink products. These are not modified foods, but formulations mostly of cheap industrial sources of dietary energy and nutrients plus additives, using a series of processes (hence 'ultra-processed'). All together, they are energy-dense, high in unhealthy types of fat, refined starches, free sugars and salt, and poor sources of protein, dietary fibre and micronutrients. Ultra-processed products are made to be hyper-palatable and attractive, with long shelf-life, and able to be consumed anywhere, any time. Their formulation, presentation and marketing often promote overconsumption.
Studies based on NOVA show that ultra-processed products now dominate the food supplies of various high-income countries and are increasingly pervasive in lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries.