Ultra-processed food
Social Care, 2024); this is just one of the many morbidities with which UPFs are associated. Decreasing UPF consumption could help reduce the social and financial costs to the individuals and institutions affected by the consequences of high UPF diets.
Establishment of poor dietary habits in children and young people
Children and young people are some of the most vulnerable stakeholders in the discussion surrounding UPF. Malnutrition caused by the consumption of ‘empty calories’ (food with little or no nutritional value) can affect the development of infants and young children, and establish a preference for these foods. In low- and middle-income countries, many families turn to and rely on UPFs for complementary feeding (Tadesse et al., 2023) (when children receive foods to complement breast milk or infant formula between the ages of 6-24 months (Lutter, 2017)). The additives, artificial flavouring, and child-targeted marketing led to UPFs appealing heavily to those whom they harm the most. Their appeal to children and their dominance in the food market – evidenced by a study in Brazil showing that 79% of the food available that was targeted towards 6-12 months were UPFs (da Rocha et al. 2021) – means that children grow with a palette for these harmful foods, which harm their immediate development and increase their risk of all the aforementioned conditions. This particularly affects children from poorer backgrounds around the world (Tadesse et al., 2023) (Chavez-Ugalde et al., 2024), as often parents will feed them these foods due to their convenience and affordability.
Despite the benefits and uses of UPFs, they pose a major health risk to global populations and can cause irreparable harm to future generations. Therefore, governments and institutions around the globe are intent on taking action to reduce the harms and overall consumption of UPFs.
Legislative and regulatory action
Regulation of the production process and product
This involves the appropriate governmental bodies working in collaboration with the scientific community to identify specific processes and substances that contribute to the harmful properties of UPFs. By regulating these processes and substances, consumers are less likely to be exposed to harmful additives or consume food that has lost its original nutritional value after industrial manipulation. While legislation is often a powerful tool when dealing with the externalities of certain goods, the success of this approach would be dependent on strong regulatory bodies and the ability of scientists to identify what exactly needs to be regulated – something that is not yet fully understood. Therefore, until advances in the science behind UPFs are made and all countries can establish strong regulatory bodies, this approach does not stand to yield any meaningful and uniform results for people around the world.
Regulate access and the consumption of UPF
As the government has previously done with other items, prohibiting the sale and consumption of UPF to people below a certain age could prevent young people from developing a taste for these foods from an early age. Decreasing consumption decreases child obesity rates (Livingston et al., 2021) and
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