THE GROWING THREAT OF UPFs

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) refer to foods that have been over-processed with multiple processing steps and contain ingredients and additives that are rarely used in traditional home cooking.
These products are more convenient, highly palatable, inexpensive, shelf-stable, and ready to eat or drink, and are not well processed by the human body and are not even recognised, leading to them being rejected and stored in the body cells.
Examples of commonly consumed UPFs are sugar-sweetened soft drinks and energy drinks, packaged fruit flavoured drinks, confectionery and sweets, chocolate products, packaged biscuits and cookies, cakes and pastries, sweetened breakfast cereals, flavoured instant noodles, chips and other packaged salty snacks.
Besides processed meat products such as sausages and luncheon meats, ready-to-eat meals, instant soups, flavoured dairy desserts, ice cream, processed cheese products, and some commercially prepared sauces and spreads.
However, it’s important to differentiate normal processed food from ultra-processed ones, and not all processed and packed foods are necessarily ultra-processed products.
UPFs' main characteristics are the use of ingredients and food additives to modify taste, texture, colour, appearance, and to produce shelf-life-stable products. Common examples of these ingredients include, but are not limited to, added sugars and sugar syrups, refined and modified starches, refined fats and oils, emulsifiers helping mix oil and water within the products such as lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, stabilisers and thickeners, flavourings, colouring agents, anti-caking and glazing agents, and high-intensity sweeteners.
Having considered the above, UPFs are still safe to consume; however, in moderation. The main concern is not that the human body does not recognise them, but that frequent consumption leads to excessive energy intake and the development of metabolic risks over time.
An Oman-specific study published in the scientific journal ‘Foods’ examined 221 food and beverage products purchased in the local markets in 2022. Nutritional composition, including fat, fatty acids, carbohydrates, sugars and sodium, was analysed according to the NOVA food-processing classification system.
Findings showed 71.5 per cent of the products examined were classified as ultra-processed food products, while a further 16.7 per cent as processed foods, demonstrating the availability of these products to all age groups in the country with easy access.
With a country trying to combat communicable and non-communicable diseases, this could be a challenge to its health systems. Particularly when the 2025 Oman National Survey on NCDs reported a high prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults, insufficient physical activity, hypertension and elevated blood glucose.
Consumer education is a key component here, by empowering consumers to understand food labels, recognise ultra-processed products, and make informed and healthier food choices.
The food industry also has an important role to play in addressing the growing consumption of ultra-processed foods and the reformulation of processed products to reduce excessive sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, and developing healthier and more affordable alternatives.