Yet the NOVA classifications are inherently contradictory.
"Processed foods" involve salt, sugar or oil added to unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Many premium ice creams are merely milk and cream (considered unprocessed or minimally processed), sugar and salt. Yet all ice creams are considered ultra-processed. Take that, ice cream!
Fruits in sugar syrup are considered "processed", yet sweetened juices are considered "ultra-processed". Huh?
Salted nuts are considered "processed" foods. Yet "salty packaged snacks" which would include salted nuts, are considered "ultra processed". Do I have to roast and salt the nuts myself? Where is the processing here? Is the package the problem?
Soups are considered "group 2" foods, which are unprocessed or minimally processed foods combined with oil, sugar or salt, but canned soups are considered ultra-processed. Yeah, OK.
Like, you can kind of see what they're going for, but when you start looking at all the edge cases, it devolves into lunacy. The actual mechanisms of ultra-processing need to be defined, not these examples which simply don't hold.
