Headlines keep warning about the villainy of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), but you’ll find them stacked high on store shelves. If people are not buying food in this niche, stores are unlikely to stock it. The logic that people are unaware of the dangers of UPFs is out of the question. For one, it is one of the most discussed topics in recent times; just check web metrics of the ‘ultra-processed foods’ keyword. Also, more people than ever before have become health-conscious. So, the question of ‘Why people eat ultra-processed foods,’ remains a paradox.
This piece will explore the factors that are driving UPF consumption, despite its acclaim as the cause of some health challenges. Some of the factors that will be discussed are lifestyle shifts, cravings, marketing, convenience, and cost. Come along for a detailed breakdown of how these factors drive UPF consumption trends.
What Exactly Counts as “Ultra-Processed”?
Before diving into the analysis of driving forces behind UPF consumption trends, it is necessary to clarify what qualifies as ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
UPFs are food products that are manufactured with industrially extracted food ingredients and additives. Indeed, the sophistication of their ingredients is one of the easiest identifiers of UPFs. These ingredients are not items you are likely to use for everyday cooking in your kitchen. However, beyond the process method that gave the product birth, UPFs are often designed to be amenable to the palate, convenient, and have long shelf lives.
The ultra-processed food classification became popular thanks to the NOVA system developed in 2009 by Brazilian researchers. The NOVA system classifies foods into four groups based on the sophistication of processing they have undergone. The four classes are:
- Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
- Processed culinary ingredients
- Processed foods
- Ultra-processed foods
How to Identify Ultra-Processed Foods
There’s no sacrosanct rule of which food items qualify as ultra-processed. However, some identifiers make checking off products in that category easy.
- UPFs have relatively longer shelf lives than their minimally processed variants.
- To make them alluring to the senses, UPFs prominently feature cosmetic additives. Examples of cosmetic additives are artificial sweeteners, artificial dyes, and flavor enhancers.
- Look out for unfamiliar ingredients, items you’d never stock in your pantry or kitchen shelf. Common examples are protein isolates, emulsifiers and gums, maltodextrin, high-fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated oils.
- Long ingredient list. There’s an unofficial consensus among food professionals that an ingredient list that exceeds five items is a potential sign of ultra-processing.
Common examples of UPFs are sweetened breakfast cereals, sausages and deli/lunch meats, instant noodles/soups, frozen pizza, cakes, chips, packaged cereals, energy drinks, and carbonated sodas.
It is noteworthy that ‘ultra-processed food’ is a categorization based on processing. So, it is not advisable to rule out all UPFs as unhealthy. Indeed, some expert reviews suggest that not all ultra-processed foods qualify as junk or unhealthy food.
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1. The Convenience Factor: A Busy World Needs Fast Fuel
We now live in a fast-paced world. Some parents are braving 70-hour work weeks, while their teenage kids are founding startups in high school. Consequently, the modern household is plagued with time poverty, prompting many families to hop on food convenience trends.
Many of the UPFs on grocery shelves are direct responses to modern eating habits and packaged foods demand. An unmarried stockbroker living in Manhattan may end up stocking his fridge with ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat products. These are some of the baggage that came with the fast lifestyle of the internet age.
So, for students, remote workers, single adults, and even some functional families, UPFs serve as quick dietary fixes.
2. Affordability: UPFs Are Often the Cheapest Option
You’ve just got off your work shift and decided to have a meal before heading home for the night. Now, your financial buoyancy will definitely determine where you dine. However, it is uncontestable that meals are way cheaper at fast-food drive-ins than at fine dining restaurants. This explains why you seldom find queues at expensive restaurants and sometimes have to join a long queue to get a Big Mac.
In addition, the recent bout of rising food inflation is causing many folks to give priority to affordability over dietary quality when making food choices. No one spends all their income on food alone, because they’re particular about buying minimally processed, quality products.
In addition, some families vote for ultra-processed foods because they have longer shelf-lives. For instance, ultra-processed and packaged energy bars often last longer than homemade ones. The less food households waste, the more they can stretch their budgets.
3. The Science of Cravings: Why UPFs Are Designed to Be Irresistible
Food product development experts are very familiar with what makes consumers tick. FoodCos often exploit this processed food psychology to get people hooked on their products. According to food scientist Howard Moscowitz, most food companies conduct what he termed ‘bliss point engineering’ during product development. The goal of this strategy is to nail the perfect ratio of salt, sugar, and fat that will keep consumers asking for more.
Beyond the bliss point, food manufacturers are also starting to pay particular attention to texture and flavor. Many studies have found that these two food properties play significant roles in how pleasurable a product is during consumption. Now, that should clear the air on why we love crunch.
Do you find yourself always craving a particular product? Processed food psychology may just be behind such cravings. Many food companies have become successful at biohacking how products trigger the pleasure centers of the brain. So, some modern diet trends can make you hooked like an opium addict. Well, maybe not as bad as a crackhead. Nonetheless, you can sidestep the subtle traps of food addiction by understanding the psychology behind cravings.
4. Marketing, Branding & Social Influence
Anyone who understands how much impact the marketing industry has had on the development of economies around the world will unreservedly give them their flowers.
Packaged foods come in attractive packaging, and this trend is even more popular with processed foods for kids. Have you seen how colorful those cereal boxes can be? Seeing such purchases from your adolescent’s perspective will make you realize that the box, not its content, sealed the deal.
Also, manufacturers of UPFs are strategic with their branding, and sometimes partner with retail chains to place their products at strategic locations in the shopping aisle.
In this era of online influence, social media also contributes significantly to modern diet trends. For example, a viral clip of a Stanley Cup in a burning car made the product popular. Similarly, homemade smoothies became popular during the COVID lockdown as people shared their recipes and diet hacks on TikTok.
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5. Why People Still Trust UPFs (More Than You Think)
Lifestyle shifts are another reason why people are embracing UPFs. Besides, the heavy quality assurance practices that go into the production of these food products make the quality fairly consistent.
Irrespective of all the ‘bad’ tags attached to UPFs, manufacturers still make sure to follow food safety regulations.
It may be difficult to keep the quality of your homemade bread consistent, but that is seldom true of an ultra-processed variant. So, each time consumers buy UPFs, the quality is quite predictable.
Some food brands have also taken food convenience to a new level with fortified UPFs. For example, some instant meals and cereals are produced in multiple variants, with a specific fortificant. So, anyone suffering from a dietary deficiency can buy such UPF that comes with the specific nutrient.
After digesting the factors discussed in this piece, the persisting popularity of UPFs will no longer come as a surprise. Beyond taste, lifestyle pressures, psychology, economics, or a combination of these factors may cause you to stock up on UPFs during your next grocery run.
Consumers aren’t choosing UPFs blindly — they’re choosing what fits their reality.
