Reports such as the Soil report on rebalancing the UK diet, suggest that the UK diet should aim to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods to 15% in line with ‘best in class’ European countries like Italy and Portugal.
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As mentioned in the previous sections, not all ultra-processed foods are bad for you. Many healthy processed foods are a key, cost-effective dietary component in many households. The recommended target is based on the NOVA4 standard whose definition of heavily processed foods does not discriminate between healthier and less healthy options.

We are working with our scientists on improving how we identify ultra-processed foods that are particularly unhealthy. In the meantime, we recommend you check the ZOE scores of the ultra-processed foods in your diet.