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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

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The Food Chain: Do we need to talk about ‘ultra-processed food’?

Magazines & Reviews

Do we need to talk about ‘ultra-processed food’?

27/05/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Do we need to talk about ‘ultra-processed food’?

The debate over ultra-processed foods and whether we should avoid them

The debate over ultra-processed foods and whether we should avoid them.

The Food Chain delves into the world of ‘Ultra-Processed Food’ - a term coined in Brazil that has been provoking debate around the world.

Ultra Processed Food is a term that encompasses a broad range of common products from industrialised bread to breakfast cereals to chocolate bars. A growing body of evidence points to an association between their consumption and negative health outcomes including obesity, over-eating, depression, heart disease, and type-2 diabetes. Countries like Brazil are so concerned they are recommending people avoid UPFs all together. But in some of the world's most developed economies these foods make up, up to 80% of our diets, whilst the public understands very little about them. 

Emily Thomas speaks to representatives from the food industry and people at the forefront of the science into UPFs to try to find out whether this is just another dietary buzzword that muddies the waters when it comes to improving the nation’s diets - OR whether it’s something we should ALL be talking about.

(Picture; Cookie talking in chocolate chips, Credit: BBC/Getty)

If you would like to get in touch with the show please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Contributors:

Gyorgy Scrinis: Associate professor of Food Politics and Policy, University of Melbourne
Maria Laura Louzada: Assistant professor, Department of Nutrition at the University of Sao Paulo
Kevin Hall: Senior investigator, National Institutes of Health, Maryland
Kate Halliwell:  Chief Scientific Officer, Food and Drink Federation, UK

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Do we need to talk about ‘ultra-processed food’?

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