- A serious new three-paper Sequence in The Lancet shows that ultra-processed foods are pushing aside fresh, minimally processed meals worldwide. The evidence links rising UPF consumption to poorer diet quality and higher risks of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other long-term illnesses.
- The authors stress that while more research will deepen our understanding, the science already shows enough harm to justify immediate public health action. They argue that waiting for perfect evidence would only allow UPFs to become even more entrenched in global diets.
- The Series emphasizes that improving diets cannot depend on individual willpower alone. Meaningful change requires coordinated policies that limit UPF production, marketing, and availability, while also reducing excess fat, sugar, and salt in the food supply and expanding access to healthy, affordable options.
- The authors describe UPFs as the result of a food system built around corporate profit rather than nutrition or sustainability. They warn that only a united global effort can counter the powerful political strategies used by UPF companies, which remain the biggest obstacle to effective policy reform and healthier diets worldwide.
Global Surge of Ultra-Processed Foods Sparks Urgent Health Warning
The growing presence of UPFs in diets around the world is creating a serious health challenge that, according to a new three paper Series published in The Lancet and written by 43 international specialists, requires coordinated policy efforts and strong advocacy. The Series describes how UPF manufacturers work to boost consumption and block policies designed to protect public health. It also presents a plan for moving toward effective government regulation, greater community engagement, and wider access to healthier and more affordable foods.
Professor Carlos Monteiro, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, explains, “The growing consumption of ultra-processed foods is reshaping diets worldwide, displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals. This change in what people eat is fueled by powerful global corporations who generate huge profits by prioritizing ultra-processed products, supported by extensive marketing and political lobbying to stop effective public health policies to support healthy eating.”
Requires Daring, Coordinated Coverage Motion Worldwide
Professor Camila Corvalan, College of Chile, Chile, continues, “Addressing this problem requires governments to step up and introduce daring, coordinated coverage motion – from together with markers of UPFs in front-of-package labels to limiting advertising and marketing and implementing taxes on these merchandise to fund higher entry to reasonably priced, nutritious meals.”
Dr. Phillip Baker, University of Sydney, Australia, notes, “We need a strong global public health response – like the coordinated efforts to challenge the tobacco industry. Including safeguarding policy spaces from political lobbying and building powerful coalitions to advocate for healthy, fair and sustainable food systems and stand-up to corporate power.”
According to the Nova classification, UPFs are industrially formulated branded products created from low cost ingredients such as hydrogenated oils, protein isolates or glucose/fructose syrup, along with cosmetic additives (e.g. dyes, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers). These products are intentionally developed and promoted to take the place of fresh foods and traditional meals while maximizing corporate profit (for a detailed definition see paper 1, panel 1).
Mounting Evidence Links UPFs to Chronic Diseases Globally
The first paper in the new Lancet Series[1] examines the scientific findings on UPFs and well being for the reason that Nova system was launched by Prof Carlos Monteiro and colleagues in 2009. The proof persistently exhibits that UPFs are changing long-standing dietary habits, decreasing general eating regimen high quality, and are linked to increased dangers of quite a few persistent diet-related ailments.
Nationwide dietary surveys additional illustrate the speedy rise of UPFs (paper 1, determine 1). The proportion of dietary vitality offered by UPFs has tripled in Spain (11% to 32%) and China (4% to 10%) throughout the previous 30 years, and has climbed from 10% to 23% in Mexico and Brazil over the earlier 40 years. Within the USA and UK, UPF consumption has elevated barely over the past 20 years however continues to stay above 50%.
New Analyses Reveal UPFs’ Hyperlink to Illness and Early Mortality
Proof reviewed within the Sequence exhibits that diets excessive in UPFs are linked to overeating, poor dietary high quality (an excessive amount of sugar and unhealthy fat, and too little fiber and protein), and better publicity to dangerous chemical substances and components. Moreover, a scientific evaluation performed for the Sequence, encompassing 104 long-term research, discovered 92 reported higher related dangers of a number of persistent ailments, with meta-analyses displaying vital associations for 12 well being circumstances, together with weight problems, sort 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and early death from all causes (paper 1, figure 4, appendix p23-24).
The Series authors acknowledge valid scientific critiques of Nova and UPFs – such as lack of long-term clinical and community trials, an emerging understanding of mechanisms, and the existence of subgroups with different nutritional values – as key areas for future research (paper 1, panel 3). However, they argue future research must not delay immediate and decisive public health action justified by the current evidence.
Professor Mathilde Touvier, French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm), France, says, “While healthy debate about UPFs within the scientific community is welcomed, this should be distinguished from attempts by vested interests to undermine the current evidence. The growing body of research suggests diets high in ultra-processed foods are harming health globally and justifies the need for policy action.”
Policy Roadmap to Restrict UPFs and Improve Diet Quality
The second paper in the Series[2] outlines coordinated insurance policies to control and cut back UPF manufacturing, advertising and marketing, and consumption, to carry giant corporations accountable for his or her function in selling unhealthy diets (paper 2, desk 1).
The paper units out how bettering diets worldwide requires particular UPF insurance policies to enrich current laws to cut back excessive fats, salt and sugar (HFSS) content material in meals.
Professor Barry Popkin, College of North Carolina, US, says “We name for together with components which are markers of UPFs (eg, colours, flavors, and sweeteners) in front-of-package labels, alongside extreme saturated fats, sugar, and salt, to forestall unhealthy ingredient substitutions, and allow simpler regulation.”
Profitable Nationwide Initiatives Present Change Is Doable
The authors suggest stronger advertising and marketing restrictions – particularly for adverts directed at kids, on digital media, and on the model stage – in addition to banning UPFs in public establishments resembling faculties and hospitals, and inserting limits on UPFs gross sales and shelf area in supermarkets. One success story is Brazil’s nationwide college feeding program which has eradicated most UPFs and would require 90% of the meals to be recent or minimally processed meals by 2026 (paper 2, panel 4).
Authors emphasize that alongside regulating UPFs, insurance policies should increase entry to recent meals. This could possibly be achieved by taxing chosen UPFs to fund recent meals subsidies for low-income households.
Professor Marion Nestle, New York University, US, says, “Improving diets worldwide requires policies tailored to each country’s unique situation and how entrenched UPFs have become in people’s daily eating habits. While priorities may differ, urgent action is needed everywhere to regulate ultra-processed foods alongside existing efforts to reduce high fat, salt, and sugar content”.
Associate Professor Gyorgy Scrinis, University of Melbourne, Australia, adds, “Importantly, policies must ensure that fresh and minimally processed foods are accessible and affordable – not just for those with time to cook, but for busy families and individuals who rely on convenient options. Only by combining stricter regulation on poor quality food products with realistic support for more nutritious choices can we truly promote better diets for all.”
Understanding How Corporations Drive the UPF Explosion
The third paper in the Series explains how global corporations, not individual choices, are driving the rise of UPFs, and that a global health response to this challenge is urgent and feasible.[3]
Authors spotlight how UPF corporations use low-cost components and industrial strategies to chop prices, paired with aggressive advertising and marketing and interesting designs to spice up consumption.
With international annual gross sales of $1.9 trillion, UPFs are probably the most worthwhile meals sector. UPF producers alone account for over half of $2.9 trillion in shareholder payouts by all publicly listed meals corporations since 1962. These income gasoline rising company energy in meals techniques, by resourcing UPF corporations to increase manufacturing, advertising and marketing, and political affect, thereby reshaping diets worldwide.
Company Political Methods Block Public Well being Coverage
The Sequence reveals how UPF corporations make use of refined political techniques to guard income – blocking laws, shaping scientific debates, and influencing public opinion. They coordinate lots of of curiosity teams worldwide, foyer politicians, make political donations and interact in litigation to delay insurance policies (paper 3, desk 1 and determine 2).
Professor Simon Barquera, the Nationwide Institute of Public Well being of Mexico, Mexico, says “Highly effective companies – not people’ selections – are behind the worldwide rise of ultra-processed meals. By curiosity teams, these companies usually place themselves as a part of the answer, however their actions inform a unique story – one targeted on defending income and resisting efficient regulation.”
The authors name for a coordinated international public well being response to guard policymaking from trade interference, finish trade ties with well being professionals and organisations, and construct a world UPFs motion advocacy community.
Professor Karen Hoffman, College of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, provides, “Simply as we confronted the tobacco trade a long time in the past, we want a daring, coordinated international response now to curb the overproportionate energy of UPF companies and construct meals techniques that prioritize individuals’s well being and well-being.”
The Sequence says tackling UPFs should contain a unique imaginative and prescient for our meals techniques – creating techniques that assist various native meals producers, protect cultural meals traditions, promote gender fairness, and guaranteeing the financial advantages of meals manufacturing circulate again to communities fairly than shareholders.
Dr. Phillip Baker continues, “We’re at the moment residing in a world the place our meals choices are more and more dominated by UPFs, contributing to rising international ranges of weight problems, diabetes, and psychological ill-health. Our Sequence highlights {that a} totally different path is feasible – one the place governments regulate successfully, communities mobilise, and more healthy diets are accessible and reasonably priced for all.”
References:
- Monteiro et al. 2025. The ultra-processed dietary sample and human well being: the thesis and the proof. The Lancet.
- Scrinis et al. 2025. Insurance policies to cut back ultra-processed meals consumption: from meals environments to meals techniques and companies. The Lancet.
- Baker et al. 2025. In direction of unified international motion on ultra-processed meals: understanding industrial determinants, countering company energy, and mobilising a public well being response. The Lancet.
The Lancet Sequence on Extremely-Processed Meals and Human Well being, was supported by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
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