Highly processed food, also called ultra-processed food, is food made mostly from industrial ingredients and additives rather than whole foods. It is usually designed to be cheap, shelf-stable, convenient, and very tasty, but often has a lot of sugar, salt, fat, and preservatives.

Quick scoop

Examples include:

  • Soda.
  • Packaged snacks like chips.
  • Candy.
  • Instant noodles or ramen.
  • Frozen meals.
  • Sweetened breakfast cereals.
  • Hot dogs and other processed meats.

How to spot it

A food is often highly processed if it has:

  • A long ingredient list.
  • Ingredients you would not normally use at home.
  • Added sugars, refined starches, flavorings, colors, emulsifiers, or preservatives.
  • Very little fiber or whole-food content.

Simple rule of thumb

If it looks more like a factory-made product than a basic food, it is probably highly processed. That does not mean every processed food is bad, though; canned beans, plain yogurt, tofu, and canned fish are processed but can still be nutritious.

If you want, I can also give you a very short “processed vs highly processed” cheat sheet.