Food Standards Scotland have published a paper which sets out their position in relation to processed and ultra processed foods (UPFs).
There has been growing interest in the topic of food processing in recent years, with lots of reports linking ultra-processed foods with health and environmental outcomes and emphasising the prominence these foods have within our society.
There is no universally agreed definition of a processed food, however the NOVA classification is the most commonly used classification system. The NOVA system groups foods and food ingredients into four categories based on their level of processing and not their energy or nutrient content. These are unprocessed, or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) reviewed the evidence in relation to processed foods and health and found that, whilst there is evidence of a link between processed and ultra-processed foods and health, there were uncertainties around the quality of the evidence available. Additionally, it is currently unclear how much of this relationship may be explained by other nutritional risk factors, such as calorie, fat, sugar or salt content.
Based on this evidence from SACN, and because definitions for processed or ultra- processed foods do not consider their energy or nutrient content (which are key determinants of the healthiness of a product), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) does not consider the evidence in relation to processed and ultra-processed foods and their impact on health to be sufficiently robust to warrant any change in dietary advice or policy direction for improving diet and diet related health in Scotland.
In comparison, there is strong and robust evidence that diets high in calories, fat and saturated fat, sugars and salt increase the risk of many chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and many types of cancer. This risk could be mitigated through decreased consumption of high fat, sugar and/or salt (HFSS) foods, in line with existing dietary advice for a healthy diet. FSS therefore continues to advise consumers to move towards a healthy and more environmentally sustainable diet, as depicted by the Eatwell Guide.
Read the Position paper here.
