Not All Ultra-Processed Foods Are Equal, Study of 13,025 Products Finds

The work, published in Foods (Basel, Switzerland) in 2026, is a descriptive analysis of products, not a study of people. The researchers did not follow any participants or measure any health outcomes. They looked at what is in the foods, using data from Open Food Facts, a free, crowdsourced online database of packaged products. Products labeled NOVA group 4 in that database counted as ultraprocessed. NOVA is a system that sorts foods by how much industrial processing they undergo.

The team sorted the products into main food groups and subgroups. They then labeled each subgroup by what earlier research had reported about its link to noncommunicable diseases, which are chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. A subgroup was marked as positively linked to disease risk, negatively linked, or with no reported link. These labels came mainly from a systematic review of 14 earlier studies, of which 12 were prospective studies and two were secondary analyses of randomized trials. Such studies show associations, not proof of cause.

For each product, the researchers looked at nutrient content, Nutri-Score, levels of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar, energy density, and hyperpalatability. Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack grade from A (best) to E (worst). Energy density means calories per gram of food. Hyperpalatable foods are those with nutrient combinations that make them especially easy to keep eating.

Overall, 64.3% of the ultra-processed products were graded Nutri-Score D or E, the two lowest grades. According to the authors, that points to generally lower nutritional quality across the category.

Snacks were the largest group and had the most consistently unfavorable profile. They had high median energy, carbohydrate, saturated fat and sugar content. They also had a high share of D and E products and the highest share of mediumand high-energy-density products.

The study also found wide variation. Products differed across food groups and across the disease-risk categories. Poor profiles were not confined to subgroups linked to higher disease risk. Some subgroups with lower or no reported risk still contained products with poor nutritional quality, high energy density or hyperpalatable profiles.

The authors conclude that ultra-processed foods are not nutritionally uniform. They say judging a food's health relevance should take into account its food group, subgroup, nutrient profile, energy density and hyperpalatability, as well as how processed it is.

There are limits. The data come from a crowdsourced database and cover one national market, Italy. The disease-risk labels rely on earlier studies, many done outside Italy, and the paper did not test whether eating any of these products changes health. The authors also note that the scientific robustness and boundaries of the ultra-processed concept are still debated.

For shoppers, the practical reading is modest, and this is our interpretation, not the paper's. The paper makes no consumer recommendation, tests no eating plan and does not say what to buy. The weakest part of any shopping takeaway is that poor products also turned up in subgroups with lower or no reported risk, so a category label alone, even snacks, is not a reliable guide.

This differs in focus from our October 21 report on European safety alerts for acrylamide, a chemical that forms when starchy foods are cooked at high heat, where most products involved were ultra-processed. That analysis looked at a specific contaminant. This one looks at nutrient profiles, and the two are not directly comparable.

What to watch next

Studies that follow people over time and link specific ultra-processed subgroups, and their nutrient profiles, to actual health outcomes.

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