NOVA Food Classification

The NOVA classification groups foods not by their nutrient content but by the nature, extent, and purpose of the industrial processing they undergo, sorting all items into four groups: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods. Developed by Carlos Monteiro and colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo, NOVA introduced ultra-processed foods (UPF) as a category — industrial formulations made largely from substances extracted from foods plus additives — and argued that this processing dimension, rather than nutrient profile alone, is central to diet and health. The 2019 paper Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them gives the operational definitions, and the share of dietary energy from ultra-processed foods has become a widely used exposure in nutrition and food-system research.