Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answers by the Minister for Primary Care and Public Health on 17 March and 24 April (HC163765, HC180118, and HC180748), what steps they are taking (1) domestically, and (2) internationally, to produce a “universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods”.

The United Kingdom’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in July 2023. This will include evaluating existing classifications of processed foods, including ultra-processed foods and the NOVA classification. We are not aware of any plans to agree a definition internationally.