The concept of ultra-processed food was introduced more than a decade ago. The utility of this concept hinges partly on whether it is framed as the literal level of food processing, which we term ‘ultra-processing formulation’, or as system dynamics, which we term ‘ultra-processing regime’.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance: mapping and analysing the global corporate influence network of the transnational ultra-processed food industry
Globalization and Health Open Access 22 February 2024
-
Ultra-processed Food and Obesity: What Is the Evidence?
Current Nutrition Reports Open Access 31 January 2024
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Afshin, A. et al. Lancet 393, 1958–1972 (2019).
Monteiro, C. A. et al. Public Health Nutr. 21, 5–17 (2018).
Baker, P. et al. Obes. Rev. 21, e13126 (2020).
Monteiro, C. A. et al. BMJ Glob. Health 6, e006885 (2021).
Scrinis, G. & Monteiro, C. A. Public Health Nutr. 21, 247–252 (2018).
Lacy-Nichols, J., Scrinis, G. & Carey, R. Food Policy 90, 101793 (2020).
Freudenberg, N. At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021).
McMichael, P. in Rethinking Food and Agriculture (eds Kassam, L. & Kassam, A.) Ch. 3, 53–75 (Elsevier, 2020).
A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045 (The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, 2021); https://go.nature.com/3XmBtHs
Russ, K. et al. Int. J. Health Policy Manag. 10, 983–997 (2021).
Gibney, M. J. Curr. Dev. Nutr. 3, nzy077 (2019).
Reardon, T. et al. Glob. Food Sec. 28, 100466 (2021).
Lang, T., Barling, D. & Caraher, M. Food Policy: Integrating Health, Environment and Society (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009).
Moubarac, J.-C., Parra, D. C., Cannon, G. & Monteiro, C. A. Curr. Obes. Rep. 3, 256–272 (2014).
Scrinis, G. Nutritionism: The Science and Politics of Dietary Advice (Columbia Univ. Press, 2013).
Apfel, D. C. Social Research: An International Quarterly 82, 913–937 (2015).
Zhong, M. & Bazilian, M. D. The Electricity Journal 31, 82–91 (2018).
Lacy-Nichols, J., Hattersley, L. & Scrinis, G. Public Health Nutr. 24, 4430–4441 (2021).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
J.L.N. and N.F. conceptualized the paper and both collaborated on the first draft and subsequent revisions. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Food thanks Mark Lawrence and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lacy-Nichols, J., Freudenberg, N. Opportunities and limitations of the ultra-processed food framing. Nat Food 3, 975–977 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00670-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00670-0
This article is cited by
-
Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance: mapping and analysing the global corporate influence network of the transnational ultra-processed food industry
Globalization and Health (2024)
-
Ultra-processed Food and Obesity: What Is the Evidence?
Current Nutrition Reports (2024)