Chapter 2: Technical additives to food: a tactic to cover up the stench and decay of capitalism
At the beginning of this chapter, I said that agricultural capitalism, by destroying the fertility of the land and depleting it of the materials needed for an agricultural product, increases the volume of the product and brings greater profits to the capitalist. In order to achieve this goal, it shortens the life span of the earth. These things were said, but there are also unspoken issues in this case. We all know that capital increases the productivity of labour, reduces its need for this power relatively, accelerates and crushes the process of the dissolution and dissolution of the worker in the process of profit production and his separation from his work, and finally brings the nothingness and worthlessness of the worker and his life, even his being alive and non-being, to the peak in its calculations. Commodity production and its most advanced form, capitalist production, are the origin, the stimulus and the full mirror of the fetishistic role of the product of human labour. The very replacement of the relationship between humans with the relationship between objects and commodities implies that the commodity or capital becomes everything and man becomes nothing. In our present conversation, the worker, his food, and the land, as far as the needs of human life are concerned, are undergoing a process of annihilation, and instead it is capital that accelerates its divine role to the limit. Agricultural products, while maintaining their appearance, are emptied of their nutritional content and the ability to satisfy real human needs. The worker is also degraded not only in the form of being reduced to a tool, not only under the painful impetus of the process of separation from work, which even in his nutrition becomes more and more inferior and worthless in order to reproduce his only saleable commodity, that is, his labor power. Here, the issue is not only that the worker is deprived of any involvement in work and the fate of his work, but it is not simply about his exhausting exploitation at the rate of mythical and destructive surplus values. The discussion is not even about the shortening of his life under the pressure of longer time, more deadly conditions, more unbearable intensity and hardship of work in countries like India, Brazil, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, Iran, Africa and other places. It is about the fact that, following all these calamities, even what he should spend on recreating this labour force with the price of his labour power becomes the target of a renewed attack by capital, becomes devoid of productive labour power and, worst of all, becomes pathogenic and deadly.
Capital decides on the type of food the worker eats and continues this chain of decisions even in the private sphere of his life as far as it wants and its profiteering demands. It goes to the fortifier, pesticide or preservative to make all this cheaper by auctioning off human lives and thereby increasing the amount of surplus labour hidden in them. The process of decay of food and the reduction of its use value for the body begins from the very beginning, when the fruit ripens, the animal is slaughtered, the vegetables are separated from the soil. Although the tissues and cells of these goods are protected by their skin and resistant walls against bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms, they do not remain healthy forever and their lifespan is limited even in minus 20 degrees. We all witness daily changes in the colour, taste, smell and shape of food and the foods we have prepared ourselves, even when they are stored in the refrigerator. When the cell walls and tissues of food are broken down by cooking or other processes and the cell contents spill out, the process of spoilage of these materials increases manifold. Ready-made food is attacked without hindrance by bacteria, worms, microorganisms and fungi and quickly goes on the path of spoilage. Ready-made and semi-prepared food sales centers, including restaurants, large manufacturing companies, supermarkets and food preparation and preservation companies, add substances such as antioxidants, preservatives and stabilizers to them to deal with this situation and also to increase the shelf life of the goods and reduce waste (in general, reduce the cost of production, transportation and storage). However, no substance can prevent the spoilage process of ready-made and semi-prepared foods, so capitalism takes initiatives in a profit-seeking and inhumane manner to cover up changes in the colour, taste, smell and even the shape of these products.
Two categories of substances are added to agricultural products: one is the so-called food fortification, the reasons for which I discussed in the previous chapter, and the other is processing aids, which are used to increase the shelf life, change the color, smell and taste of ready-made and semi-ready foods. These substances, which include 22 different groups, include about 250 official substances. All of them are approved by JECFA (Food safety and quality) 16 or the United Nations Food Control Agency and EFSA or the European Food Safety Authority. It should be noted that these products are not only used in food production, but are also used in the preparation of medicines, cosmetics, shampoos and soaps. The classification of these substances based on their role is as follows. 41 colorants, 49 preservatives, 44 antioxidants, 12 sweeteners and more than 100 other substances, including polysorbate, are on this list.
The latter group causes skin allergies. People who are allergic to propylene glycol, which is found in cosmetics, are also sensitive to polysorbate, which is added to food to dissolve fats. These compounds have a European code (E number) and for more information about them, see Appendix 5. The information collected in this regard is from sources 18, 19, 20, 21. However, it should be noted that this is the official list of registered substances that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a license to register and use in food production. In addition to the official substances, thousands of other legal and illegal substances are added to foods. For example, 8 different types of chemicals are used to create the taste and aroma of strawberries in ice cream and creams, and the manufacturer only puts his mind at ease and clarifies the customer’s task by stating the name of the flavor on the product package. Among the dyes used, azo compounds are the most notorious for causing allergies, asthma, eczema, and skin changes such as urticaria.
For example, E120 or Carmine, the attractive red color that increases sales in sweets, syrups and candies, causes insomnia, hyperactivity (ADHD), fetal defects and aggression. Sweeteners such as E420 Sorbitol, or E412 (Guar gum) cause intestinal problems, intestinal infections, brain diseases, muscle cramps, aggression and depression. The vast majority of these substances are produced chemically synthesized and therefore, as soon as they enter the body, they are attacked by enzymes that the liver produces to fight foreign substances. Basically, from the point of view of pharmacology and pharmacodynamics, all chemicals that enter the body are attacked as harmful substances by the organs and members of the body’s defense system and must be destroyed. Including liver enzymes (CYP enzymes), which number in the tens, have the same task.
This process unconsciously reminds man of the essence of capital, of a production method in which everything is fundamentally anti-human. Profit-making is everything in it and man is nothing. A reminder of the important fact that how vulgar is the work of those who consider the struggle for this or that minor change in the composition of this or that food or this or that corner of the environment as the cure for the pain of the human being of the age!! A reminder of this great lesson of history that without the elimination of capitalism, without a conscious, radical, and class-based assault on the very foundation of this system, without a labour movement, a council, and a nationwide movement that has all the capacity, facilities, and necessary preparations for this assault, talk of improving the environment or making food healthier and the like is nothing but self-deception and deception of others. Capitalism lives on the unpaid labour of workers, by producing profits and converting profits into capital and continuing its self-expansion. Polluting the environment and making food pathogenic is a mechanism for this system to increase surplus values. To eliminate these scourges, we must get to the root. The roots are hidden deep within the existence of capital. Simply trying to improve the condition of this or that commodity without fighting to dry up the roots of the damage, even assuming some achievements, will only prolong the life of this cancerous tumour and this infectious swamp. The enormous increase in labour productivity after World War II meant that the labour of the worker produced many times more than before. In this regard, less socially necessary labour for a given amount of product led to lower prices for goods and a much higher rate of surplus value. The desire to reduce the price of goods, increase competitiveness in the capitalist market, and secure a larger share of world surplus value turned the greedy eyes of capitalists to the field of food production at a cheaper price than what workers could produce by working at home in kitchens. The massive accumulation in this field also provided the opportunity for the owners of capital to bring more and more women into the labour market, increasing competition among workers for labour power and at the same time putting more pressure on wages. The greater employment of women in the labour market, in turn, paved the way for greater accumulation of capital in the field of food production. The amount of time a Swedish female worker spent preparing food at home in the 1950s was on average about 3 hours a day. This figure dropped to 10 minutes in 2010 (22)
The meaning of this change was that the vast accumulation of capital in the food industry, coupled with the compulsion of women to sell their labour, had significantly filled the space in the kitchens. In this way, as workers increasingly became consumers of ready-made and semi-prepared foods, capital accumulated in a new area, and the price of labour also fell in two ways. First, because the mass of sellers of labour increased greatly, a phenomenon that led to competition among workers and a decline in wages. Second, because mass production and the rapid increase in labour productivity led to a decline in the price of goods, which in turn provided a basis for keeping the price of labour low. Two points need to be explained here. First, the reduction of domestic work is not only not bad, but the elimination of this type of work is the agenda of the anti-capitalist movement of the working class. There is nothing to say about this. However, the point is about the role, purpose, effects, and consequences of the functioning of capitalist relations in this process. If the anti-capitalist socialist movement of the proletariat attacks women’s work in the home as a factor of physical and intellectual degradation and degeneration of humans and demands its abolition, the wage slavery system, on the contrary, sees everything, including any change in the volume of this type of work, as a mere function of the conditions of the cycle of mass profit production. For this very reason, with the increase in unemployment, the bourgeoisie is immediately reminded of the caressing warmth of home kitchens and the warmth of mothers’ arms to care for their children. The second point is that capitalism, as has been stated, pursues this not only at the cost of increasing the pressure, speed, and intensity of work, but at the same time exposes human lives to all kinds of threats. Let us return to the main point of the discussion.
Due to excessive or prolonged consumption of some of the above substances (E621-E625), the human body suffers from disorders. Hypersensitivity such as headache, excessive sweating, burning throat and increased pressure in the chest are among these disorders. These symptoms are known as (Chinese restaurant syndrome) 23, because these substances are widely used in the production of Chinese and Asian ready-made and semi-ready foods, and through this, they have entered the food sector of other world markets, including chain restaurants such as (McDonalds), etc. since the 1970s. New research shows that excessive consumption of these substances has destructive effects on the fetus, liver, nervous system and vision, and also causes asthma, depression, growth problems in young people and hormonal disorders. E621 is a poison for the nervous system and causes Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Let’s not forget that the main customers of fast foods such as hamburgers and restaurants that produce this food are the vast mass of workers. After these symptoms and signs (syndrome) were recognized, the capitalists in the food production sector made a huge effort to prevent their sales from falling. They increased research budgets in this period. The clarity of the problem was such that they could not hide the high human complications and losses, so they took another path. They resorted to the same old trick of pharmaceutical companies to prove the lack of relationship between symptoms and diseases and added substances.
Among the techniques that manufacturers and capitalists in this field, with the full agreement of government officials, have used to standardize these additives and scientifically demonstrate their anti-human performance is the ADI (Acceptable daily intake) test. This test is carried out with the aim of falsely showing the safety of daily consumption of added technical substances. The way it works is that laboratory mice are fed a relatively large amount of the substance in question and when no reaction is apparently observed, the consumption of the tested substance is recognized by the authorities as a natural substance. This system, which arises from the fraud and demagoguery of capital, has no scientific value other than misleading the mass of workers who consume these products for the simple reason that first of all, the biological and genetic structure of mice is very different from that of humans. In such a way that the same government officials consider drug tests on mice to be completely inadequate, and this leads to a long process of various tests on humans (a drug is subjected to various tests for 10 to 12 years, and sometimes more, until it is accepted by the authorities, such that testing on mice only takes 10% of the time and capital required). Secondly, no scientific results are obtained from the changes or lack of changes in the appearance of laboratory mice because genetic changes, allergic reactions, and internal and even skin lesions are the result of a long process of consuming waste materials, and this cannot be clarified with a few hours of testing. The capitalists’ trick is that they first decide to add their desired ingredients to extend the life of the product, to make the taste, colour, smell, and shape of their product attractive, and then they start to fabricate arbitrary justifications to mislead the minds of the working mass of consumers. Thirdly, the destructive effect of additives is postponed until they are actually consumed.
This means that when the consumption of the substance in question is recognized by the authorities after widespread human casualties and its destructive effects become apparent after a while, then the entire scientific, technical, advertising and judicial apparatus of capital is used to unnecessarily show these effects with the substance in question!! Therefore, no other name than fraud and a game of inhumanity is suitable for this. The best example of this fraud is the disclosure of the Acrylamide phenomenon in 2002 in Sweden 24. Acrylamide (AA) is formed when plant products (such as flour, potatoes, coffee and other hydrocarbon-containing products) are exposed to temperatures exceeding 120 degrees during the production process of ready-made and semi-ready foods. This substance is the result of a chemical combination of hydrocarbons (types of sugar, starch and the like) and an amino acid called Aspartic Acid, which is present in all plants. The amount of acrylamide formation and its concentration in products such as chips, corn flakes, French fries, bread, biscuits, processed cereal-based foods for infants and young children, and many other foods, depends on the temperature and time of frying. So that the more acrylamide is formed, the more the colour of these products turns from light (light yellow) to dark. For example, half-cooked uncooked French fries contain 45 micrograms of acrylamide, and the same product when fully cooked and fried contains 1512 micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram of potatoes. As can be seen from Figure 6, the attractiveness, appeal, and taste of these products are proportional to the amount of acrylamide formed during the production process. This phenomenon, which causes the attractive taste and colour of foods, is called the Maillard reaction in chemistry.
The dangerousness and harmfulness of this substance is certain due to its combination with body proteins such as hemoglobin and DNA, at least as far as it has been shown in laboratory mice. So far, no trace of this substance has been seen in cooked foods. However, frying and grilling are the main conditions for the formation of acrylamide. In other words, since the production of ready-made and semi-ready foods became the agenda of capital, this problem has appeared and become widespread (the majority of these foods are produced by large companies. Table 2 of Appendix 5 shows the percentage of market share of European companies in the sale of these products). The side effects of this substance are, to the extent that laboratory experiments on mice show damage to the nervous system such as tremors, pregnancy disorders and DNA changes, the latter of which causes breast, goiter, brain and genital cancers. The leakage of this substance into surface and groundwater during the construction of a train tunnel in western Sweden in 1996 caused the death of cows and the illness of humans in the area. Part of the deception of the capitalist production system in the process of exposing this substance in ready-made and semi-ready foods is the system’s work in two ways. While factory owners, producers, and their government officials agree on a short and inexpensive test of technical substances to be added to ready-made foods on rats, and this process is approved as soon as possible and the substance in question is licensed, the opposite is true in the case of acrylamide. The capitalists and their government agree, scientifically! That the results of the test on rats are not applicable to humans and that the aforementioned diseases in humans cannot be attributed to acrylamide! Therefore, the officials and government bodies in this case are content with recommending a reduction in the amount of acrylamide produced!! But these recommendations have not led anywhere in the 12 years since the disclosure of the crime of capital, and the amount of this toxic and carcinogenic substance in the foods served in restaurants and ready-made and semi-ready foods in stores is still high. For more information, see the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report of June 2014, which includes test results on 43,419 ready-to-eat and semi-ready-to-eat foods from the food industry. 17
It should be noted that no trace of acrylamide has been found in cooked foods. On the other hand, frying and roasting in devices called “ovens”, which are the food preparation processes in factory production, are the main cause of the formation and especially the high levels of this substance.
Acrylamide (AA), a product for the production of plastic (Polyacrylamide), has a close relationship with the crimes of capital after World War II. This substance, which was first produced as an element needed in the war, was used in various products by the American company Monsanto Company in the 1950s. This company, which is today the main producer of genetically modified plants and chemicals and plant pesticides in the world, has a long history of producing chemical warfare agents. For example, in the criminal war of the US government against the people of Vietnam, it started destroying forests with bombs containing the substance, Agent Orange. The products of this company alone caused the illness of 4.8 million Vietnamese and the birth defects of 500 thousand children in this country. The amount of acrylamide produced in chips is on average 1000 micrograms, in Pommes frites and 500 micrograms per kilogram of product. According to research by the Swedish Food Safety Authority, the maximum permissible intake for each person per day is 30 to 40 micrograms. One third of this amount enters the body through chips, Pommes frites and other fried potatoes. Biscuits, hard factory breads and other toasted breads provide another third and the rest enters the body through coffee (for more information, see Appendix 5 Table 1). About half of the acrylamide that enters the body is excreted from the body within 4 to 5 hours through various routes, especially urine, due to its small molecule and easy solubility in water. Interestingly, the European Health Organization and the World Health Organization WHO have set a maximum level of this substance in water at 0.1 micrograms per litre, but these main international capital bodies have not yet set any limits for this substance in ready-made and semi-prepared foods.
Another important issue to mention is the addition of phosphorus compounds to ready-made and semi-prepared foods. Phosphorus is an important element in the body’s structure (for more information, see the beginning of Chapter 2). This substance is absorbed by the body in much greater quantities than needed (unlike other elements, this element is very easily absorbed by the body, so that even phosphorus salts have a high metabolism). Phosphates are even used for canning, sourening the taste of food or as a stabilizer. The destructive effects of increasing the consumption of phosphorus compounds are very great and shocking reports are published every day in this field. For example, research by Johns Hopkins University and Alabama on 9700 people over 15 years25 shows how the increase in mortality is directly related to the amount of phosphorus absorbed. Heart disease, reduced kidney function capacity and cancer can be mentioned among the complications of its unnecessary consumption. American researchers 26 concluded from a study of 200 food ingredients in 2394 different products in the state of Ohio that the addition of phosphates to ready-made and semi-prepared foods is much higher than previously thought, and the increase is sometimes 50% more than what is stated on the labels!! 44% of the most popular food products have added phosphorus, and since foods with added phosphorus are cheaper than similar foods without phosphorus, it is not surprising that these types of products are more popular. Researchers conclude from this trend that consuming foods with added phosphorus is a health threat, especially for those who have weaker kidneys or are at risk of their bodies being threatened by constant consumption of these substances. Other research shows that 72% of frozen ready-made foods contain high levels of phosphate. 70% of ready-made foods such as tacos, chili, chips also contain various phosphorus compounds. 57% of machine-made breads produced in the United States have added phosphates. For example, phosphate acts as a leavening agent. By adding phosphate, the dough takes on its natural shape in a short time without having to go through the preparation process of several hours and sometimes days due to the effect of sourdough.
It is clear that the use value of the produced goods is not of concern to the capitalist producer and seller, but to the consumer, but production determines the method, type and manner of consumption. When producers of ready-made and semi-finished foods add ingredients to their foods with the aim of attracting customers, they also create and develop the method of consumption and the desire to consume these goods. Here a reciprocal relationship arises. This means that production has given birth to a new type of consumption, and new consumption creates a need for production. The production of new food goods is always rooted in previous consumption, which has left its effects on the human mind and body. Hence, consumption becomes the motivation for production and even the expansion of the sphere of capital accumulation. In capitalist relations of production, workers are the producers of all goods and capital, but not only are they unable to interfere in any way with and influence the process and fate of these products, but capital, in pursuit of galactic profits, does whatever it wants to their lives, bodies and health. The materials mentioned in this chapter (and in Appendix 5) were not discovered and used overnight. Capital is inherently a prisoner of the falling rate of profit and is subject to the onslaught of crises. With each crisis, the entire bourgeoisie, while feasting on the empty table of the working masses, sets out with all its intellectual wealth and resources to find and implement a way out of the crisis and the resumption of a period of prosperity. The capitalists and their governments always, at every moment and most of all in these conditions, think of producing as much as possible, hoarding all free capital, lowering wages as much as possible, reducing prices as much as possible, heating up the competitive market and, in a word, obtaining greater profits. In this transition and in line with reducing prices, expanding the sales circle and obtaining greater profits, they turn to the production of harmful, pathogenic and deadly goods.
If five decades ago we were flipping through the pages of the food safety organizations of capitalist governments and encountered a little criticism and complaint about the use of chemicals in food, today it is only necessary, useful and natural to show these substances adorning their pages and lines. This is precisely at the same time as the volume of additives, more harmful chemicals and even the simultaneous use of several substances increases. Many researchers, out of goodwill, advise capitalists to use harmless but expensive natural substances, reduce the quantity of chemicals and abandon the consumption of unnecessary substances, unaware that capital seeks profit, capital thinks of its own self-expansion, profitability and greater growth, and ignores wise sermons and advice to preserve human health. Capitalism finds its inherent contradictions heavier and heavier every day, its reproduction becomes more difficult, its profit rates fall faster, its crises knock on the door more and more violently. Capitalism is inherently anti-human, but especially in these circumstances, killing thousands of people for every rial of profit is the most common thing that it welcomes. The goal of capital is not to satisfy the real needs of humans, but to generate profit. The goal of capital is not to balance production and the needs of human life, but rather to increase the burden of unpaid labour (surplus value) against paid labour (wages). When the rate of profit decreases, capital grabs at every door to stop this process. In this transition, various capitalists do everything they can to reduce production costs. They plan the production of goods that are cheaper to produce, have more customers, have more competitive power, and will give them a greater share of surplus value. To achieve this goal, they will take the path of committing any crime. These include fraud, new adventures in food products, making them attractive, changing the taste, smell and appearance of food through the use of harmful and poisonous substances and making them more popular at any cost, including at the cost of the inevitable threat to the health of the mass of workers and consumers. This is how we have witnessed the unbridled and continuous progress of capital in opening up the fields of poison production, especially after the Second World War, and in this process the capitalist fire-bringing states are omnipresent and powerful.
The above review was written by Hassan Abbasi in October 2014.
Let’s see what the situation is like after ten years.
The Lancet: the ultra-processed dietary pattern: worldwide time trends. November 18, 2025
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and human health: the main thesis and the evidence
The rise of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in human diets is damaging public health, fuelling chronic diseases worldwide, and deepening health inequalities. Addressing this challenge requires a unified global response that confronts corporate power and transforms food systems to promote healthier, more sustainable diets, according to a new Lancet Series on UPFs and human health, published on Nov 19. UPFs are the most processed group of foods in the Nova classification system, which categorises foods by the extent and purpose of processing. UPFs are identified by the presence of sensory-related additives that enhance the texture, flavour, or appearance of foods. High UPF intake is associated with an increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions. However, the value of the UPF concept is not universally accepted. Some critics argue that grouping foods that might have nutritional value into the UPF category, including fortified breakfast cereals and flavoured yoghurts, together with products such as reconstituted meats or sugary drinks, is unhelpful. But UPFs are rarely consumed in isolation. It is the overall UPF dietary pattern, whereby whole and minimally processed foods are replaced by processed alternatives, and the interaction between multiple harmful additives, that drives adverse health effects. At the core of the UPF industry is the large-scale processing of cheap commodities, such as maize, wheat, soy, and palm oil, into a wide array of food-derived substances and additives, controlled by a small number of transnational corporations. UPFs are aggressively marketed and engineered to be hyperpalatable, driving repeated consumption and often displacing traditional, nutrient-rich foods. In many high-income countries, UPFs comprise about 50% of household food intake, and consumption is rising quickly in low-income and middle-income countries. The harms extend to planetary health. Industrial production, processing, and transport of agri-commodities are fossil-fuel intensive systems, and plastic packaging is ubiquitous in UPFs. The UPF industry generates enormous revenues that support continued growth and fund corporate political activities to counter attempts at UPF regulation. A handful of manufacturers dominate the market, including Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. A comprehensive, government-led approach is needed to reverse the rise in UPF consumption. Priority actions include adding ultra-processed markers, such as colours, flavours, and non-sugar sweeteners, to nutrient profiling models used to identify unhealthy foods; mandatory front-of-pack warning labels; bans on marketing aimed at children; restrictions on these types of foods in public institutions; and higher taxes on UPFs. The market dominance and political power of the UPF industry must also be addressed by stronger competition policy, replacing self-regulation with mandatory regulation, and combating corporate interference. Civil society can also help to accelerate change, as epitomised by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program, which has facilitated policy wins throughout Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa by building coalitions to promote industry regulation, evaluating policies once implemented, and providing support when countries face corporate interference when adopting and implementing policies to curb UPF consumption. Equity must be central when addressing the challenge of UPFs. Consumption tends to be higher among people facing economic hardship. Efforts to transition away from diets that are high in UPFs must not deepen gender inequities in cooking or food insecurity among populations who are dependent on cheap UPF options. Echoing the recommendations of the EAT–Lancet Commission, transforming food systems will require redirecting agricultural subsidies away from large, transnational corporations. Instead, a diverse range of food producers should be supported in creating locally sourced, affordable, minimally processed foods and meals that are convenient and appealing to consumers. Taxation on UPFs could help to fund cash transfers for whole foods and other minimally processed foods to help protect low-income households. The UPF industry is emblematic of a food system that is increasingly controlled by transnational corporations that prioritise corporate profit ahead of public health. The Lancet Series strengthens the case for immediate implementation of policies to address the UPF challenge. This requires a well resourced, coordinated global response with comprehensive, mutually reinforcing policies that address harmful corporate practices and break the grip of the UPF industry on food systems worldwide.
We evaluated the first hypothesis through a narrative review of studies, which applied Nova to three or more nationally representative food purchase or intake surveys conducted over decades in the same country. Relevant studies were identified based on the authors’ knowledge and longstanding expertise in the field. In addition, we conducted original analyses of Euromonitor International’s food sales data from 93 countries.38
The energy contribution of UPFs to total household food purchases nearly tripled in Spain39 over three decades (11·0% to 31·7%), more than doubled in Canada40 over eight decades (24·4% to 54·9%), and increased from 10% to 23% in Mexico41 and Brazil42 over four decades (figure 1). In Argentina, this contribution increased from 19% to 29% over three decades.43 In China (3·5% to 10·4%),30 and South Korea (12·9% to 32·6%),44 the low dietary share of UPFs tripled over three decades. In the USA20,45 and the UK,25 where intake was already above 50%, it only increased slightly over two decades, indicating that dietary patterns in these countries are already well established. All studies reported statistically significant increasing trends, except the UK study.
Figure 1 Time trends in the share of UPFs in nine countries estimated from repeated national food purchase or food intake surveys
The ultra-processed dietary pattern: worldwide time trends
We evaluated the first hypothesis through a narrative review of studies, which applied Nova to three or more nationally representative food purchase or intake surveys conducted over decades in the same country. Relevant studies were identified based on the authors’ knowledge and longstanding expertise in the field. In addition, we conducted original analyses of Euromonitor International’s food sales data from 93 countries.38
The energy contribution of UPFs to total household food purchases nearly tripled in Spain39 over three decades (11·0% to 31·7%), more than doubled in Canada40 over eight decades (24·4% to 54·9%), and increased from 10% to 23% in Mexico41 and Brazil42 over four decades (figure 1). In Argentina, this contribution increased from 19% to 29% over three decades.43 In China (3·5% to 10·4%),30 and South Korea (12·9% to 32·6%),44 the low dietary share of UPFs tripled over three decades. In the USA20,45 and the UK,25 where intake was already above 50%, it only increased slightly over two decades, indicating that dietary patterns in these countries are already well established. All studies reported statistically significant increasing trends, except the UK study.
Multiple nutrient imbalances
A meta-analysis46 of national surveys from 13 countries (ie, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA) showed that diets with higher UPF energy shares had higher contents of nutrients directly associated with chronic disease risk (ie, free sugars, total fat, and saturated fat), and lower contents of nutrients inversely associated with chronic disease risk (ie, fibre, protein, potassium, zinc, magnesium, and several vitamins). Further analysis of eight of the 13 countries showed that reducing UPF intake to the lowest quintile would substantially decrease the prevalence of diets with insufficient fibre intake or with excessive energy density, free sugars, or saturated fat, and would reduce the percentage of diets inadequate in all four parameters by 69·4% (in Canada) to 92·1% (in the USA).47
National surveys of children and adolescents in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the UK, and the USA showed that the energy share of UPFs correlated positively with energy density and free sugars, and inversely with fibre.48 Positive associations between the UPF share and nutrient profiles related to chronic diseases were also found in cross-sectional analyses of large cohorts in Europe,49–52 the USA,53 and Brazil.54
Increased energy intake
The 13-country meta-analysis predicted a 34·7 kcal increase (95% CI 14·7–54·7) in total daily energy intake for each 10% increase in UPF share.46 This increase aligns with the linear associations shown by the same meta-analysis between the UPF share and dietary nutrient profiles that favour excessive energy intake (ie, high free sugars, total fat, and saturated fat, and low fibre and protein).
A US study at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA, USA) assessed 14 adults in an 8-week pilot behavioural intervention designed to reduce UPF intake. Three 24 h dietary recalls before and after the intervention were used, and statistically significant reductions in daily energy intake (2561 kcal to 1949 kcal), the number of UPFs consumed (11·5 per day to 6·2 per day), and the energy from UPFs (1944 kcal/day to 993 kcal/day) were reported.55
17. EFSA Journal 20YY;volume(issue):NNNN
EFSA (European Food Safety Authority)
18. Ruth Winter, A Consumer of Food Additives
19. Beatrice Trumhunter, The Mirage of Safety
20. Roy Firus, Introduction-Dangerous food additives with E-number
21. Roy Firus, Min bok om mat och hälsa: www.bloglovin.com/blog/post/2784626/2448412071
22. Statistics Sweden
23. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article /001126.htm 24. national food agency of sweden
24. national food agency of sweden
25. Universities of Johns Hopkins, University of Alabama,
American journal of clinical nutrition NHANES III.
26. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC3674209/
The Prevalence of Phosphorus Containing Food Additives in
Top Selling Foods in Grocery Stores, Janeen B. León
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)02322-0/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01565-X/fulltext