What’s up with ultra-processed foods?
Assessing the science and taking the mystery out of ultra-processed foods
March 20, 2026
Wander down a grocery aisle in any supermarket and you’ll be surrounded by colorful boxes of dry and frozen foods, touting quick meals, great tastes, and even fortified nutrients. Ultra-processed foods — food with added ingredients like preservatives, salt, sugar, fats, and artificial flavors and colors — make up 73% of the U.S. food supply, according to an article published in the journal Nature Communications.
“All food is processed in some way,” said Job Ubbink, Food Science and Nutrition Department Head at the University of Minnesota. “But ultra-processed foods are really distinguished by what gets added to it. They contain high amounts of sugar, salt, and fat — high in calories but low in the essential nutrients we need,” he explained. “They are also often very appealing and easy to eat, inviting overconsumption, and they are marketed aggressively.”
Not all processing is bad. Processed foods can last long, or provide specific nutritional benefits, like lactose-free milk or frozen fruit. But processing can also have undesirable consequences: bran can be removed from flour, resulting in highly refined white flours that lack important nutrients and fiber and, in the past, chemical hardening of vegetable oils resulted in solid fats with high amounts of so-called trans fats that should be avoided.
The food category of ultra-processed foods was first coined by researchers in Brazil about 15 years ago as part of the NOVA food classification system. It’s sparked a larger, global debate about their role in the obesity pandemic. But Ubbink cautions it’s not such a simple answer.
Ubbink wants us to be careful about demonizing all processed foods. “People on a budget, people with time constraints, folks in food deserts or who live in rural areas far from grocery stores, they all rely on processed foods,” he cautions. While for him it is a priority to make fresh and minimally processed foods more broadly available, Ubbink says improving the ingredients and formulation of ultra-processed foods has a role to play as well. It’s not just individual choices people make, but first and foremost policy makers and industry leaders who should be taking the lead.
“After all, processed food helps feed the world. And that’s essential,” said Ubbink.
