If we are what we eat, then we are increasingly composed from substances including synthetic emulsifiers, flavour compounds, bulking agents and stabilising gums (one of the most common being a slime produced by bacteria). Well over half of the average diet in the UK and US now consists of ultra‑processed food (UPF) – or, as one scientist prefers to put it, industrially produced edible substances. Though defining it technically is complex, the simple explanation is that it contains items you wouldn’t normally find in a kitchen.
Sometimes UPF looks like junk food – obviously artificial and high in salt, fat and sugar. But it often comes in reassuring forms such as soup, muesli or yoghurt. “Almost every food that comes with a health claim on the packet is a UPF,” notes Dr Chris van Tulleken drily in Ultra-Processed People, one of several recent books on the subject.
