Not All Ultra Processed Foods Are Bad For Health, This Is An Explanation From IPB Food Experts

Illustration of ultra-process food (Freepic)

JAKARTA - So far, ultra-process foods often get negative stigma as a cause of health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases.

In fact, not all foods that fall into this category deserve to be labeled poorly. Many ultra-process products actually play an important role in improving nutrition, food security, and even facilitating distribution of nutrients in modern society.

Prof. Purwiyatno Hariyadi, Professor of the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), at the 2025 National Scientific Gathering of the Indonesian Nutritionists Association (PERSAGI) which took place in Jakarta said that comprehensive negative labeling of ultra-process foods could be misleading and needed to be reviewed.

"Often ultra-process foods are considered unhealthy, when in fact they cannot be generalized. There are ultra-process products that have high nutritional value and are useful, depending on the formulation and composition," explained Prof. Purwiyatno.

Referring to the NOVA classification system developed by researchers from Srypto Paulo University, Brazil, ultra-process food is defined as processed products that contain industrial ingredients such as artificial sweeteners, synthetic perias, emulsion, dyes, and other unusual additional ingredients found in household kitchens. Some of the general examples include soda, biscuits, frozen foods, sweet contracts, and packaged snacks.

These foods are often equipped with sugar, salt, dilution, taste, and dye which make them look even more attractive to taste. This reason makes the image of ultra-process foods have low nutritional content until it is branded bad for health.

In fact, said Prof. Purwiyatno, not all ultra-process foods have poor nutritional value and the assessment of the NOVA classification still has weaknesses because it too generalizes the category of food raw materials.

This can be seen from food products such as plant meat which is widely consumed by vegetarians and vegans. These foods fall into the ultra-process category, although the nutritional content is quite complete and can be a good source of vegetable protein.

"We need to review the NOVA system so as not to confuse the public. For example, this alternative meat, even though in terms of nutrition, the environmental impact has many positive values, but it is included in the ultra-process food group but so that the conditions are misunderstood as unhealthy food, even though it is clearly more useful," said Prof. Purwiyatno.

In addition, it can also be seen from products such as protein bars, protein milk and so on. Most of such foods are processed in such a way. But can the content of below, kasein, and some of the nutrients obtained from certain processing processes also be considered bad?

He emphasized that instead of just looking at the processing method, people should focus more on the quality of the nutrients from the food they eat. People also need to be more careful before buying and eating food, especially in packaging.

One of the simplest examples is when looking at foods with high levels of sugar, salt and trans fat. These three ingredients of course have a bad impact on health that should be limited.

"The current ultra-process food has become an important part of food in today's era. If it is not processed, we cannot enjoy what we can eat today. I think this is part of the innovation of the food industry," he concluded.