NOVA groups explained: what “ultra-processed” actually means
Nutrition labels tell you what a food contains. The NOVA classification, developed by Carlos Monteiro's team at the University of São Paulo, asks a different question: what was doneto it? It sorts every food into four groups by the extent and purpose of industrial processing — and it's the framework behind the now-ubiquitous term ultra-processed food (UPF).
The four groups
| Group | What it covers | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Unprocessed / minimally processed | Edible parts of plants and animals, possibly dried, frozen, ground or pasteurised | Vegetables, milk, plain yogurt, flour, frozen fish |
| 2 — Processed culinary ingredients | Substances extracted from group 1 foods and used in kitchens | Oils, butter, sugar, salt, honey |
| 3 — Processed foods | Group 1 foods preserved or transformed with group 2 ingredients | Canned vegetables, cheese, fresh bread, smoked fish, tofu |
| 4 — Ultra-processed foods | Industrial formulations with substances of no culinary use and cosmetic additives | Soft drinks, instant soups, reconstituted meats, most snack bars and breakfast cereals |
Spotting group 4 on a real label
Scan the ingredient list for these markers:
- Substances with no home-kitchen equivalent: glucose-fructose syrup, maltodextrin, soy protein isolate, interesterified fats, hydrolysed proteins.
- Cosmetic additives: flavourings, colours, emulsifiers, sweeteners, thickeners used to simulate texture.
- Long ingredient cascades — a bread with 6 ingredients is usually group 3; one with 25 almost never is.
The flip side matters too: preservation additives in otherwise simple foods (the nitrites in traditional cured ham, the citric acid in canned tomatoes) and traditional coagulants (the calcium chloridethat sets cheese and tofu) are not what NOVA means by ultra-processing. Forkin's classifier explicitly treats those as group 3 signals — see below.
What the evidence does and doesn't say
Large prospective cohorts (NutriNet-Santé, EPIC, UK Biobank) have repeatedly associated high UPF consumption with higher risks of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and all-cause mortality, and a 2019 NIH randomised trial found people ate roughly 500 kcal/day more on an ultra-processed diet matched for offered nutrients. That's why the category earns a penalty in Forkin's scoring.
The honest caveats: NOVA classifies processing, not nutrient quality, so group 4 contains both colas and fortified wholegrain breads; observational associations can't fully separate UPF intake from income and lifestyle; and classification at the boundary of group 3/4 is genuinely fuzzy for some products. NOVA is most useful alongside a nutrient score like the Nutri-Score, which is exactly how Forkin displays it.
How Forkin assigns NOVA
Most packaged products never state a NOVA group, so Forkin estimates it from the enriched ingredient list:
- every recognised ingredient carries its own NOVA group, and the product takes the maximum — one genuinely ultra-processed component makes the formulation group 4;
- additive-driven escalation is cappedunless a genuine ultra-processing marker (emulsifier, flavouring, sweetener, modified starch) is present — a lone preservative doesn't condemn a jar of olives;
- traditional coagulants and firming agents are capped at group 3, so cheese and tofu classify correctly;
- products with no ingredient data get no NOVA group at all — an honest blank instead of a guess.
The full decision tree is on the methodology page. In the app, NOVA appears on every product page and feeds the processing penalty in the overall score; you can also check any additive's function and regulatory status in the E-number index.
Frequently asked questions
- Is every NOVA group 4 food bad for you?
- NOVA is a processing classification, not a health verdict. Group 4 correlates with poorer dietary patterns in large cohort studies, but the group spans everything from soft drinks to fortified wholegrain breads. Forkin shows NOVA alongside the nutrition score so neither stands in for the other.
- How can I tell if a product is ultra-processed?
- The practical marker is ingredients you would not use in a home kitchen: protein isolates, modified starches, hydrogenated oils, flavourings, sweeteners, emulsifiers, colours. One or two functional additives alone don't necessarily make a product group 4 — it's the combination of industrial substances and additives whose purpose is taste, colour or texture engineering.
- Why does cheese count as NOVA 3 and not 4?
- Traditional processing aids — coagulants like calcium chloride used in cheese-making or tofu-setting — are part of ordinary food production, not markers of ultra-processing. Classifications that treat every additive as an ultra-processing signal misfile cheese and tofu; Forkin caps such traditional aids at group 3.
- Why does a product show no NOVA group in Forkin?
- NOVA needs an ingredient list. Roughly a quarter of catalogued products have none available, and guessing the main ingredient would systematically under-rate processing — so Forkin leaves NOVA empty rather than inventing it.
Put it into practice
Forkin applies everything in this guide automatically — scan any barcode and see the score, processing group, additives, and your allergens checked in one view. See pricing.