Understanding Ultra-Processed Foods:
A Guide for Consumers
A large part of the U.S. food supply is made up of ultra-processed foods (UPF).
These foods often contain ingredients you wouldn’t find in a regular kitchen, like artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, and other industrial additives.
UPF contributes approximately 67% of total energy intake for U.S. youth aged 2 to 19 and about 57% for U.S adults.¹⁻³
What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
A large part of the U.S. food supply is made up of ultra-processed foods. These foods often have ingredients you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen, like artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, and other industrial additives.
Scientists use the Nova classification system to categorize foods by how much they’ve been processed:
Nova Group 4: Ultra-processed foods
Nova Groups 1–3: Unprocessed/minimally processed, processed culinary ingredients, and processed.
Ultra-Processed Food Health Impacts
UPF are linked to weight gain and a higher risk of chronic diseases in adults, such as obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, and dementia.
They are also linked to health issues in children.
You’re already taking a meaningful step by learning more. Discover simple ways to read labels, choose foods made with recognizable ingredients, and find realistic swaps that work for you. Sign up to hear about upcoming webinars, Consumer Learning Guides, and workshops designed to make it easier to add more whole and minimally processed foods to everyday life, one practical step at a time.
What are Processed Foods? How Scientists Classify What We Eat
Scientists use the Nova classification system to group foods by how much they’ve been processed.
Foods in Nova Group 4 are considered ultra-processed, while those in Nova Groups 1 to 3 are less processed or not processed at all.
This system helps experts study and understand how UPF affect our health.
Health Risks of Eating Too Many UPF
Some UPF can fit into a balanced diet, but eating too many has become a major problem in the U.S. They are linked to chronic diseases and can harm the environment. Below are some of the main concerns about UPF:
1. Higher Risk of Chronic Diseases
Eating too many ultra-processed foods has been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. It can also disrupt gut health, impair brain function, and lead to ongoing inflammation, which may cause serious health issues over time.
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Linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and dementia.
Increased incidence of depression, anxiety, and sleeping disorders.
May slowly harm your brain and make thinking and memory worse over time.
May cause digestive problems by upsetting the balance of good bacteria in your gut. Your gut has many tiny organisms, like bacteria, that help digest food and keep you healthy. These are often called good bacteria because they protect your stomach and intestines. Eating too many ultra-processed foods can reduce these good bacteria, which may lead to problems like stomach pain, bloating, or poor digestion.
Associated with chronic inflammation, which can lead to other health problems. Chronic inflammation happens when your body stays in "fight mode" for a long time, even when there’s no real danger. Normally, inflammation is a helpful process that fights off infections or helps heal injuries. But when it lasts too long, it can harm healthy cells and tissues. This long-term inflammation can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or joint pain.
2. Brain and Development Concerns in Kids
Eating too many UPF can impact memory, thinking, and brain development; affect children’s behavior, and may change taste preferences, leading kids to crave more of these foods.
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Poor diet quality can affect your memory, how you think, and how your brain grows.
Artificial colors and preservatives may affect children’s behavior.
These foods can also change taste preferences, making kids want more UPF.
3. Too Much Sugar, Salt, and Unhealthy Fats, and Low in Fiber
Ultra-processed foods are high in added sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats but low in fiber, which helps with healthy digestion.
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High in added sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats.
Low in fiber, which is important for healthy digestion and helps manage blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
4. Eating Less Healthy Whole Foods
Ultra-processed foods are made to be super tasty, which can cause overeating. They may also lead to less home cooking and more cravings for unhealthy foods because of the artificial ingredients.
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Eating fewer fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.
Lower amounts of critical vitamins and minerals.
Eating less plant nutrients that help keep you healthy.
Processing can change the structure of food, which may increase or decrease how well your body absorbs nutrients like sugar and fiber.
5. Additives and Hidden Ingredients
Eating too many ultra-processed foods can mean eating less fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, which provide important vitamins, minerals, and plant nutrients.
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Some ingredients added to foods are called safe, but they haven’t been fully tested to see if they’re safe in the long run.
Just because something doesn’t cause problems right away doesn’t mean it won’t harm your health over time.
Scientists worry that eating a lot of these ingredients for many years might lead to health problems we don’t know about yet.
Ingredients like emulsifiers and sweeteners may upset your stomach and affect your hormones.
Many additives in ultra-processed foods are made using chemical processes that most people don’t know about. These processes change ingredients so much that they barely resemble real food, but companies aren’t required to explain how the additives are made. This means consumers may not realize how processed their food actually is.
6. Behavior Around Food
Some ingredients in ultra-processed foods are labeled as generally recognized as safe but haven’t been fully tested for long-term effects. Scientists worry they may harm your gut, hormones, and overall health over time.
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Highly palatable (super tasty) foods can override fullness signals and contribute to cravings and addiction-like patterns of overeating.
These foods are designed to make you want more, and often replace healthier, less processed foods.
Eating too many UPF can lead to fewer people cooking at home and less connection to the delicious array of tastes, textures, colors, and aromas naturally found in whole foods.
7. Social and Economic Inequities
People from all backgrounds have health problems, but low-income communities, especially kids, are targeted with cheap ultra-processed foods, making it harder to get healthier options.
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Differences in health affect people from all income and social backgrounds.
Ultra-processed foods are often marketed to kids, especially in low-income communities.
Many low-income areas don’t have enough healthy food options. Instead of offering more nutritious choices, the market mostly provides cheap, easy-to-find ultra-processed foods, making it even harder for people to get fresh, nutrient-rich foods.
8. Environmental harm
Ultra-processed foods cause more trash and pollution and may reduce the variety of plants and animals, giving us fewer natural food choices.
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Ultra-processed foods create a lot of packaging waste and produce more pollution, which can harm the environment.
They may reduce biodiversity, which means having lots of different types of plants and animals.
By promoting more processed foods, we could end up with fewer natural food choices and less variety in what we grow and eat.
To learn more about leading theories on how UPF harm health and the public policies aimed at reducing those harms, explore our advocacy partner, the Consumer Federation of America's report, Ultra-processed Foods: Why They Matter and What to Do About It.
The Non-UPF certificate is an endorsement that a food contains no ultra-processed ingredients at the time of certification approval.
This endorsement is based solely on the information disclosed on the food label by the food manufacturer and/or its distributor. It does not certify the absence of cross-contamination, food allergens, or other substances that may affect one’s health. The Non-UPF Program is not responsible for any nondisclosure, omission, or misinformation on a food label or otherwise provided by a food manufacturer and/or distributor.