NOVA is a food classification system developed by Carlos Monteiro and first published in 2009. NOVA divides food products and food ingredients into in four groups. Instead of using a nutrient focus as we are accustomed to here in the US, NOVA uses the degree and purpose of processing. The 4 NOVA groups are:
Group 1 – Minimally Processed Ingredients.
Group 2 – Culinary Processed Ingredients.
Group 3 – Processed Ingredients.
Group 4 – Ultra-Processed Ingredients.
I’ve selected 100 recipes from my personal collection. It’s a work in progress but my goal is to categorize each recipe in one of these three groups:
🟢 Recipes that are made combinations of with minimally processed, processed culinary, and processed ingredients – NOVA Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 or G123.
🔴 Recipes or pre-prepared meals made with mostly ultra-processed ingredients – NOVA Group 4 or UPF.
🟡 Recipes or pre-prepared meals made with NOVEL products. There’s a growing list of NOVEL products that don’t fit neatly in a single NOVA group and experts tend to disagree on how to categorized them. Especially challenging is the line of demarcation between processed and ultra-processed. Most benefit from modern industrial food processing, the science of microbiology, and list more than 5 ingredients. Most also avoid large-scale, outdated, brutal over-processing methods and the use of sensory (artificial or natural) additives to modify color, flavor, texture. Most also tend to be respectful of a food’s cellular structure or food matrix.
For lack of a better term, I’ve given this subcategory of Group 4 / Group 3 products a name – NOVEL. They are probably healthier but mechanistic evidence has not been done yet.
For some background information on NOVA, check out this Dialogue I developed for the Digital Edition of the IFT Magazine “Are NOVA’s Critics Missing an Important Point”.
For a more comprehensive breakdown of both the classification system and healthy outcomes, check out “Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system”.
