Is this food ultra-processed?

What your result means

Pick one real plate, like yesterday's lunch, with the amounts you ate. Each food shows its group and the one ingredient that decided it, and the bar shows the plate's share of calories from ultra-processed food.

1. Under 30%. Most of the plate is food a kitchen could make, under meals.guide's plate line. Keep it.
2. 30% to 53%. Between the plate line and the US adult average. One swap usually takes it under the line, and the swap shown is the one that drops it most.
3. Over 53%. More than the average American day. Look at which food carries the most calories. On most plates it's the bread, the meat or the drink.
4. Check the nutrition line too. A plate can be 100% group 4 and still bring protein and fiber, like a whey shake with whole wheat toast. The share is one fact about the plate, never its grade.

Then try the swap, check the actual package with the label checker, and grade the whole plate on meals.guide, where Processing is one of six checks.

How NOVA's test works

NOVA sorts food by how it's made, in four groups, and leaves nutrition out. The test for group 4 is one question about the label: is there at least one ingredient a home kitchen doesn't keep? Table sugar, salt and oil don't count. High-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, whey protein, emulsifiers and flavorings do.

Every food in the checker has its group tagged in our table, the same tags meals.guide uses, so a plate's share is the same on both sites. A food is picked from the list, never guessed from what you type. For a package that isn't in the list, paste its ingredients in the label checker.

The share is the plate's calories from group 4 foods over all its calories. The bar marks meals.guide's plate line, no more than 30% of a plate's calories from ultra-processed food, and the US adult average, 53.0% of calories (CDC, 2021 to 2023). No US guideline sets a share to stay under.

The swap comes from trying each swap in our list on your plate and keeping the one that drops the share most. It shows what that does to protein, fiber and added sugar, so a swap that costs you protein says so. To grade the whole plate on protein, plants, fiber, sugar and size, use meals.guide.

Four plates, worked

Turkey sandwich100%

300 calories, 100% of them ultra-processed. 14 g protein, 3.8 g fiber.

Swap the deli turkey for roast turkey: 70%, and protein goes from 14 g to 25 g. A second swap, the mayo for avocado, takes it to 53%.

The bread is still group 4. It has about three times the fiber of white, and the swap ladder shows the loaf that isn't group 4.

Cereal and milk46%

220 calories, 46% of them ultra-processed. 10 g protein, 0.8 g fiber.

Swap the corn flakes for oatmeal: 0%, and protein goes from 10 g to 14 g, fiber from 0.8 g to 4 g.

Fruit yogurt100%

230 calories, 100% of them ultra-processed. 10 g protein, 0 g fiber.

Swap the fruit yogurt for plain Greek yogurt and blueberries: 0%, and protein goes from 10 g to 18 g, fiber from 0 g to 2 g.

Chicken, rice and broccoli0%

410 calories, 0% of them ultra-processed. 42 g protein, 2.8 g fiber.

Nothing on this plate a kitchen wouldn't keep.

Where the numbers come from

Food values are from the USDA's Nutritive Value of Foods (Home and Garden Bulletin 72), the same table meals.guide uses, with a few rows from the USDA's Standard Reference and the FDA. The deciding ingredient for each group 4 food is the one most US labels of that food list. Your label decides, so check it in the label checker.

The group is a fact about how a food is made, not a grade. In 198,636 US adults, whole grain bread, cereal and yogurt, all group 4, went with lower diabetes risk, while sweet drinks and processed meat went with higher (Chen 2023). That's why the nutrition sits beside the group, on its own line.