What is meant by processed foods?

A healthy lifestyle, which is supposed to prevent diseases, often includes a restraint towards processed, especially highly processed, foods.

But when is a food considered processed? Hardly anyone pulls a carrot out of the ground and bites directly into it. In most cases, the carrot at least gets a short bath or a little shower to remove the attached soil before it can enrich our menu. Is cleaning already a form of processing, or where does the definition of what characterizes a food as processed begin?

A relatively easy-to-understand guide is provided by the NOVA classification. It categorizes foods based on their level of processing into 4 groups:

Group 1

includes foods that are natural, unprocessed, or minimally processed. This means they have only been cleaned, cooled, frozen, heated, or fermented after harvest or slaughter. The processing in this group is limited to making the product edible or preserving it in such a way that it remains in its natural state. Thus, our washed carrot would be found here.

Generally, no additives from Group 2 are used to extend shelf life. However, there are rare exceptions, such as pasteurized milk, added stabilizers, or antioxidants in vacuum-packed vegetables.

In addition to natural fruits and vegetables, Group 1 also includes seeds and roots, as well as milk, eggs (even if they have been heated), yogurt without further additives like sugar, and meat.

In Group 2

processed products are summarized that are primarily needed for meal preparation. They are obtained directly from the products mentioned in Group 1 through pressing, refining, grinding, or drying. Additives in the form of anti-caking agents, iodine, or antioxidants, etc., may be included here.

Characteristic of this group is that the products are generally not consumed directly or in isolation but serve as aids in food preparation. Group 2 includes, for example, natural oils, sugar, salt, honey, butter, lard, and plant-based starches like corn or potato starch.

Group 3

consists of classic, relatively simply processed foods like bread, cheese, or canned goods. Essentially, these are foods from Group 1 to which food additives from Group 2 have been added. By preserving, fermenting, or cooking or baking them, their shelf life is extended, which represents a main purpose of processing for products in this group. Another reason is to change or improve texture, appearance, smell, or taste.

A simple example here is bread: Flour is mixed with water, salt, and with the help of leavening agents like yeast or sourdough to form a dough that must "rise," meaning it undergoes a certain fermentation. Through baking, it then acquires its firmer texture and longer shelf life. The finished product, bread, has thus been altered in appearance, smell, taste, and texture.

Other examples of foods belonging to this group include fruit, vegetable, and fish preserves, salted or sugared nuts, cured and smoked meats, as well as cheese. Alcoholic beverages like wine and beer can also be classified here.

Group 4

includes the so-called highly or ultra-processed foods, which usually contain five or more, often many more, ingredients. The abbreviation UPF for this group is also common, standing for "ultraprocessed food".

These are products that contain only extracts from Group 1 foods, but hardly any complete products from this group. Sometimes these are even completely absent. Instead, the foods classified here usually contain ingredients from Group 2 that have been significantly processed, such as hydrogenated fats, cheap sugars or sugar substitutes, as well as flavor enhancers, etc.

Substances are also used that are normally not used in food preparation. These serve to imitate sensory properties or to mask undesirable sensory properties.

There is an almost endless list of substances that can be added, such as flavors, colorings, fillers, emulsifiers, etc., to make the end product tasty, ready to eat, durable, colorful, attractive, and much more. The basic substances are often inexpensive and are significantly altered in taste through the manufacturing process.

The end product is offered in appealing packaging and is often marketed with sophisticated marketing strategies.

Group 4 thus includes a wide range of products, from ready-to-bake rolls to "diet" products, energy drinks, ready meals, fruit drinks, "health" products, yogurt with flavors or sweeteners, infant formula, sweets, to lemon rolls from the freezer. If one considers alcohol as food, distilled alcoholic beverages like whiskey or vodka, as well as colorful alcopops can be found here.

Why should one know this?

Various studies have shown adverse health effects from the consumption of ultra-processed foods. There was an increased mortality rate and also a higher rate of diseases among study participants whose diet primarily consists of ready meals and highly processed products. This includes both a poorer cardiometabolic risk profile, meaning a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, as well as a higher overall mortality, an increased cancer risk, increased changes in cerebral vessels, up to strokes, and also depression.

Many health-related dietary recommendations therefore advise against highly processed foods, as they usually contain many calories, many unfavorable fats, a lot of salt and/or sugar, and hardly any vitamins and fiber.

On the other hand, the health effects of the many possible additives are often not or hardly known. Thus, reports about potential health hazards from these substances frequently appear in the media. Not infrequently, these refer to additives that have so far been classified as uncritical.

Like various other additives, sugar substitutes are repeatedly criticized. Erythritol was associated in a study published in 2023 with increased platelet aggregation, meaning a tendency to form blood clots. Earlier studies also viewed this sugar substitute rather critically.

In another study published in 2023, researchers found that the sweetener sucralose could influence certain immune system cells.

In summary, increased UPF consumption - although in a limited number of studies - was associated with a poorer cardiometabolic risk profile and a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, depression, and overall mortality.

Sources

By Sabine Croci. This article is medically reviewed. Last updated (03/2024).
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