Overview
- This weekend’s coverage showed there is still no single legal or scientific definition of “ultra-processed” foods, creating confusion for researchers, policymakers and consumers.
- The NOVA system, created in 2009 to flag industrial formulations with additives not used in home cooking, is widely used but critics say it is too broad and inconsistent across studies.
- WHO has been working since 2024 to develop its own definition, while countries such as Brazil and Argentina continue to apply NOVA-informed guidance or front-of-pack labels, producing uneven rules across jurisdictions.
- Multiple alternative systems exist, notably Siga’s marker-based approach that evaluates specific additives against EFSA criteria, and researchers warn that common diet surveys were not designed to measure processing categories and can bias health links.
- Journalists and public-health experts advise consumers to prioritize minimally processed plant foods, read ingredient lists and use nutrient profile labels to judge products because processing alone does not determine a food’s health value.