UPFs are becoming the backbone of so-called ‘globalised diets’, displacing healthier whole foods as the logical destination of corporate-industrial agri-food systems. Affordability, accessibility, convenience and status are driving UPF expansion in low-income countries, as populations become more urbanised, with increased incomes from wage labour, and with less time available for food preparation.
UPFs constitute a core strategy of profit maximisation with their longer shelf life, quasi-addictive ingredient formulation and higher profit margins than healthier whole foods. Investment in UPF production in Africa is more than twice that going to farms and plantations. Corporations producing UPFs exert strong influence on laws and regulations, including through marketing, private funding of scientific research, sponsorships and lobbying for self-regulation.
Increasing consumption of UPFs is resulting in a massive increase in dietary-related non-communicable diseases and deterioration of the nutritional quality of overall diets. UPFs are often cheaper than locally produced fresh foods. Their production and distribution contributes significantly to environmental damage caused by the industrial food system, including biodiversity loss, land degradation, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
There have been recent efforts to regulate some aspects of UPF consumption. However, these are primarily situated at the end of the product lifecycle through taxes, marketing restrictions, labelling requirements and limits on certain ingredients. Nutrition is framed as a matter of individual responsibility.
Policies must aim to effectively enhance production of and access to diverse foods and restrict the embeddedness of UPF, while strengthening local foodways and their ecological, social and health benefits. Any measures require effective regulations to ensure implementation, monitoring and penalties for non-compliance.
You can read the briefing here.
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