Many are expecting the movement against ultra-processed foods to continue in 2022.
With unhealthy diets that are high in ultra-processed foods being responsible for millions of preventable deaths every year, health experts are now calling for tobacco-style warning labels for ultra-processed food items.
Trish Cotter, Global Lead, Food Policy Program at Vital Strategies, says,
“It’s high time consumers had the opportunity to see ultra-processed foods for what they are foods that are not real foods, containing nutrients that are not real nutrition, pervasively marketed by transnational corporations offering choices that are not real choices.”
Within this context, fresh and packaged foods that are nutritionally dense are likely to play a greater role in food industry innovation.
Data that was gathered from NelsonIQ suggests that consumers are already making an effort to take a closer look at nutritional labels. Researchers from NelsonIQ say,
“Ingredient labels on products are a lot more important than one might think; over 40% of consumers have switched to a brand’s competitor within the last year because they had more trustworthy ingredients."
Jason Bull, director of Eurostar Commodities, says,
“Consumers are focusing increasingly on the ingredients that are within products and, more importantly, the functionality they have in products. We’re becoming more determined in our efforts to eat cleaner and to eat more sustainably.”
