Ultraprocessed foods are designed and marketed in ways that encourage people to keep choosing them, despite knowing they are unhealthy.

A new University of Auckland study finds companies making ultra-processed foods, often called junk food, design and market these products to encourage people to eat more and more of them.

Led by Dr Joshua Clark, the study reviewed ten years of international research to create detailed diagrams showing how these foods are formulated and promoted.

The diagrams were developed through group discussions, repeated revisions and a two-day workshop with experts in food science, marketing and systems research. See Obesity Reviews.

“What we found were several reinforcing feedback loops, which all drive consumption and purchasing,” says Clark.

“Our biology and our behaviour are at the centre of this system, which goes some way to explaining why, as populations, we are pretty hooked on these foods.

“These UPF manufacturers are very clever at this, because it makes them money.”

It is likely New Zealanders consume half of their diet as ultra-processed foods, in line with other developed countries, researchers say.

A recent global report in the Lancet found ultra-processed foods are causing rising rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other long-term illnesses.

Clark says New Zealand has many options to respond to this health threat.

“So many countries have now implemented taxes on sugary food and drink, regulations on advertising to children, strong front-of-pack labelling programmes, as well as lobbying transparency policies that keep the political playing-field fair.

“We don’t have to be the trailblazers with this one, we just have to follow some of the great work and leadership coming out of places like Latin America.”

Professor Boyd Swinburn, a population nutrition researcher and co-author, says New Zealand has done nothing about its high intake of UPFs.

“Half the world has taxes on sugary drinks but for some reason, political timidity and fear of the UPF industry has meant that we have zero strategies in place to deal with our epidemic of rising obesity.”

The new study proposes that high consumption of ultra-processed food is not just about personal choice, but instead, the result of a system carefully designed to take advantage of how people think, feel and behave.

The researchers found ultra-processed food companies use a combination of strategies, including:

• ingredients such as sugar, fat and salt that drive cravings
• using people’s online data to target advertising
• cartoons and characters aimed at children
• strong branding to build loyalty
• placing outlets strategically, e.g., near schools and in areas where there is already high UPF consumption
• positioning products in high-traffic areas of stores
• processing methods that supress the body’s natural feeling of fullness

“It isn’t just one tactic, there are quite a few pieces that are interconnected to increase our exposure to their advertising, to their products,” says Clark.

“Then the foods are designed to be so convenient, so appealing and generally the easier choice for many people, and all of this, when it's interlinked, makes us really crave and over-consume UPFs, and, unfortunately, experience the negative health effects from eating them.”

The research highlights how people become trapped in this system.

“We all hate to be manipulated by big businesses,” says Clark.

“I think shining a light on this is an opportunity to get people to care about it as an issue and to ask, advocate, and demand for governmental policy action to disrupt this system and rebuild a food environment that serves and nourishes us, not the balance sheets of international corporations.”

Senior author Dr Kelly Garton, a senior research fellow in the University’s School of Population Health, says UPF companies learned important lessons from the tobacco industry in the 1980s and 90s.

Research shows US tobacco companies bought food and drink businesses and used their knowledge of flavours and child-focused marketing to help develop sugary drinks and products that combine salt, fat and sugar to trigger strong reward responses in the brain. See BMJ.

Combined with chemical flavourings, these products became ‘hyper palatable’ and designed to be over-eaten. See Addiction.

There is earlier evidence showing how heavily marketed these products are in New Zealand, especially in ways that target children, young people and parents. See Evidence Brief.

What this research adds

Clark says the study identifies many reinforcing feedback loops that keep consumption high.

“Many of these exploit parts of our human biology, psychology, behaviours and social patterns to drive purchasing and consumption of their products.

“Our social norms, daily routines, cultural practices, taste preferences and even our brains’ rewards systems have been captured and conditioned as part of this system to make us crave and overconsume UPFs, meanwhile allowing the health harms as collateral damage.”

The authors call for New Zealand and other countries to implement policies recommended by the World Health Organization to reduce UPF consumption.

What other countries have done

• Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in 120 countries around the world
• Front-of-pack nutrition warning labels
• Brazil limits ultra-processed food in school food programmes
• In Chile, ultra-processed foods high in salt, fat or sugar cannot be marketed to children
• Colombia has taxes on ultra-processed products and sugary drinks

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