NEW TECH FOODS

As we work to build a healthier and more sustainable food system – one where everyone can access nutritious, safe and responsibly produced food – it's no surprise that we are paying more attention to how our food is made. The way we make food has gotten increasingly complex over the last several centuries, and terms like 'ultra-processed food' (UPF) are gaining traction, often used as shorthand for poor nutrition and chronic disease. But when it comes to novel foods like cultivated meat, it’s time we stop lumping everything new into this vague and often misleading category. Accurate science, not fear or confusion, must drive our conversations. Suzi Gerber, researcher at Tufts University, and executive director of the association for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation (AMPS), explains.

What is ultra-processed food?

UPF is a short and simple concept, and the easy-to-notice term has helped increase interest in  improving healthy diets – but because it is poorly defined, it has also led to confusion. Of note, many experts dispute that the concept of UPFs is as useful as once believed.

The concept of UPF was popularised by a classification system called Nova, developed by researchers in Brazil. Nova groups foods into four categories based on aspects of their composition and use:

• Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed – (e.g. fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and unseasoned meat)

• Group 2: Processed culinary ingredients – (e.g. refined cooking oils including seed oils, salt, sugar, flour and even refined white flour and starches)

• Group 3: Processed foods – (e.g. canned vegetables, juice, breakfast cereal, cheese and bread)

• Group 4: UPFs – typically combinations of foods from the other groups or foods with industrial additives like flavourants, colourants, emulsifiers and preservatives

  
  

According to this framework, many familiar foods – such as yogurt, crackers and most packaged foods (including much conventional animal-sourced meat or plant-based meats) – are classified as UPF. More than 70% of the total US food supply falls into this category today. In the US, UK and the EU, 40-67% or more of daily calorie intake comes from UPFs.

While many UPFs, like sugar-sweetened beverages (like colas) and processed meats, are linked to chronic disease, not all so-called UPFs are created equal – in fact more and more evidence shows the opposite – that there are healthy UPFs and unhealthy UPFs. The culprits driving negative health for UPFs are nearly always high salt, sugar, and saturated fat we’ve known that we should limit for decades.

The Nova system oversimplifies the complex field of nutrition – experts know that formulation, nutrient quality and dietary context matter more than processing alone, or the presence of incredibly small quantities of some additives. Interestingly, Nova also fails to recognise some of the processed foods with strong evidence of harm, like bacon. For example, bacon is automatically a Nova category three processed food but not a UPF. Thus, the system is confusing and misleading as a metric of both processing and dietary health.

So, is cultivated meat ultra-processed?

In short: no, not inherently. Cultivated meat is meat made from animal cells – in other words, it is meat made from other meat, just grown in a controlled environment. Rather than raising and slaughtering an entire animal, producers of cultivated meat grow only the edible parts, using a mix of amino acids, sugars, vitamins and minerals to nourish the cells. These nutrients get metabolised (digested) by the cells and then grow into the muscle and fat that we eat, just as they would inside an animal. This also means every aspect is able to be carefully screened and controlled, which isn’t usually the case on farms.

The nutrients fed to cells are digested just like they are by a cow, chicken or  pig, and like those animals what they eat is not carried over into the final product. For example, when a cow eats soybeans the steak produced is not made of soy. We don’t label farmed salmon as a UPF because their diets are fortified with synthetic carotenoids to enhance colour. Nor do we call beef UPF when cows are fed growth hormones. These pre-harvest additives are common in traditional agriculture but are metabolised by the animals before slaughter. Just the same, cultivated meat can be made into minimally processed or ultra-processed foods after harvest just like conventional meat can be made into steak or jerky and bacon.

The UPF status applies to what happens post-harvest and post-slaughter: If cultivated meat is breaded, seasoned and formed into nuggets with stabilisers and preservatives, it may be considered a UPF – just like conventional chicken nuggets. But a cultivated tuna loin served raw for sashimi? That’s a minimally processed food, not a UPF.

The bigger picture: Processed ≠ Bad

All foods can have a range of processing applied after harvest. Nutrition scientists know that health outcomes depend on the final food formulation and the role the foods play in the overall diet. Interestingly, other alternative proteins like plant-based meats, which are often classified as UPF, have been shown to have neutral or positive associations with health – markedly different than the ample evidence of risk linked to processed meat.

As with other emerging technologies, cultivated meat invites us to re-evaluate food. Technology has improved our ability to feed ourselves safely and effectively. From pasteurisation and fermentation to flash freezing and nutrient fortification, nearly everything we eat today has been shaped by science and technology. Tomatoes have been bred for size, colour and shelf life – in fact, tomatoes only existed in the Americas until a few hundred years ago and thanks to human intervention they’re now a staple of cuisine worldwide. What we know as “whole wheat flour” is ground up components that are selectively industrially reconstituted. Milk is often used as an example of a whole, natural, single ingredient food but it is in fact  pasteurised, homogenized and fortified with vitamins – all of which are industrial processes that change its molecular structure. These processes make milk safer, more visually appealing, and nutritionally enriched, but they do alter its natural state – and thus we benefit!

Cultivated meat is no different: it’s a modern advancement in how we make food, not a break from nature. It is real animal protein, with the potential to eliminate antibiotics in meat, increase food safety and availability, and reduce the environmental impact of food. It can also help keep food systems resilient as growing conditions change and world events impact trade.

Along with keeping an open mind about novel foods, the conversation about UPFs itself must evolve. Instead, we should evaluate what’s in a food, how it’s made, and its role in a healthy diet. Cultivated meat is not inherently ultra-processed. Like all meat, it depends on what we do with it after it’s made. It’s time we separate science from stigma and focus on what really matters: how food nourishes people and sustains the planet.