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Food policy

Challenges for regulatory responses to ultra-processed foods

Nature Food (2025)Cite this article

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The emergence of ultra-processed foods is closely connected to the commercialization of food systems. Limiting their unrestrained growth may be critical to improving human and planetary health.

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Fig. 1: The ‘Junk Food Cycle’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Martin White

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  1. Martin White
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Correspondence to Martin White.

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Competing interests

M.W. receives research and consultancy funding from public and charitable sources and receives no funding from commercial organizations. In 2024, he was Specialist Adviser to the UK House of Lords Committee on Food, Diet and Obesity. He has been an Expert Adviser to The Food Foundation, a non-governmental organization in the UK, since 2016.

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White, M. Challenges for regulatory responses to ultra-processed foods. Nat Food (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01138-7

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