How much is your food treated? A new database is helping consumers make greater decisions

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Ultra processed foods have been the number 1 enemy in nutrition during the decade, however, it may be difficult to know what products fall in this category when you look at the shelves of groceries. Now, general Mass Brigham researchers in Boston are to relieve the procedure to avoid ultra processed foods.

Scientists have used an set of rules to analyze a diversity of foods from Target, Walmart and Whole Foods Market. Each product won a score according to its point of transformation, then put in a food category. The effects were published in the magazine Nature Food.

However, the researchers also took things a step further, creating a website called True Food, where everyday consumers can search for foods by name or by category. The goal is to help people make better-informed choices without simply designating foods as ultra-processed or not.

Related: Eating Too Much Fruit and Soda Juice Connected to a Higher Stroke Threat, According to 2 New Studies

“The current food processing classification takes a huge chunk out of the food supply,” says study co-author Giulia Menichetti, PhD, an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and investigator in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “But more research is showing that not all of these foods are equally bad for our health.”

Here’s what the study found, plus how to use the site while you shop.

Foods are classified through its transformation point as a service of a formula called Nova scale. The scale divides food into one of the 4 categories, adding unprojured and processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra -ejustos.

Here is a category ventilation:

Unprocessed and minimally processed foods include foods that are in their natural state or are barely altered. Fresh produce and milk fall into this category.

The processed culinary ingredients are foods made thanks to minimum treatment, such as pressure, grinding, refining or milling. The examples come with almond flour, butter and olive oil.

Processed foods are altered from their natural state. They usually contain sugar, oil, salt, or other ingredients and include bagged frozen vegetables, sweetened fruit juice, and tinned fish.

Ultra-processed foods are processed with additional ingredients such as synthetic colors, flavors, additives, and preservatives to their texture and shelf life. These foods are packaged regularly, such as soda, electric drinks, sugary cereals, and flavored potato chips.

For the study, Menichetti researchers and their colleagues accumulated and analyzed the lists of ingredients, nutritional facts and food costs in Target, Whole Foods and Walmart. These retail points of sale have been selected because all are among the 10 most popular placements that other people buy groceries throughout the country, Menichetti explains.

The researchers then took the data and created GroceryDB, a database with more than 50,000 food items. The researchers then used their own FPro algorithm, which uses AI technology to determine the degree of processing for foods, to create a “processing score” for each product.

With the processing score, the larger the number, the more ultra-processed a food is. “The majority of the time, something close to zero will be products like milk, fresh produce, and eggs,” Menichetti says.

Overall, the researchers found that Whole Foods offers more processed products than the other two retail outlets — most of the foods sold by all of those retail outlets are in the ultra-processed range. In some places, some food categories feature only highly processed foods.

The effects of The Examine are published on the True Food website, which classifies food and presentations at everyone’s remedy score, as well as a list of nutritional facts. There is even an ingredient tree that monitors what is happening in other foods. This means that if a product has a higher point of remedy or low, you can see why.

To use the site, you can type in a product’s name to see its score, or you can search by category to see which foods are the least and most processed.

Menichetti says that the purpose of the site is to provide consumers with more information. By assigning a score number instead of saying only if they are ultra prosecuted, it is less difficult for consumers to make their own informed judgment on the purchase of a product. .

The categories can also help consumers for opportunities if, let’s say, a Go-Pasta ends up having a higher score and needs something less treated.

Related: Ultra-Processed Food Linked to Heart Disease, Cancer, and 30 Other Health Conditions, Study Suggests

The team didn’t find an overall least processed and most processed food across all categories, though. “It’s way more important to work at the category level,” Menichetti says, noting that this allows consumers to make better-informed choices around the foods they want.

The team took several years to create this knowledge base, but Menichetti says they plan to make knowledge over time. “We hope to create a physically powerful definition of food transformation and the consequences of physical aptitude,” she says. “The more knowledge there is, the better. “

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