Ultra-Processed Foods through an Intersectional Lens

<p dir="ltr">We all agree that food, clothing and shelter are basic necessities for human survival. One factor that sustained our survival was the evolution of our interaction with food, from eating the food as is, in its most natural form, to engaging in some type of food processing. Food processing, which included boiling, baking and fermentation, was necessary to survive long migrations and thus the expansion of the human population, (Park). Food processing began at least 400,000 years ago, with our ancestors using fire to cook meat until the advent of agriculture 10,000 - 15,000 years ago. In contemporary times, our food processing abilities continue to evolve. Now food has advanced to be much more than their nutrients and are more focused on satisfying customers’ sensory appeal. Priscila Machado, a public health nutritionist at Deakin University in Geelong Australia, acknowledges that cosmetic additives such as colors, flavors, thickeners, emulsifiers, and gelling agents are used to improve the sensory properties of food (Park). Due to these severe alterations, after the addition of all these cosmetic additives, these processed foods are labeled as “Ultra-processed foods”. According to the NOVA system ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods (Monteiro).</p><p dir="ltr">This project was a winner of the Navari Center for Digital Scholarship, University of Notre Dame Library Research Award, 2023.</p>