ReviewInternational journal of health policy and management2021
Ultra-Processed Profits: The Political Economy of Countering the Global Spread of Ultra-Processed Foods - A Synthesis Review on the Market and Political Practices of Transnational Food Corporations and Strategic Public Health Responses.
Review in International journal of health policy and management, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 127 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ultra-processed food intake and risk of digestive system cancers: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Ultra-processed foods consumption and health-related outcomes: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Unhealthy Food and Beverage Consumption during Childhood and Risk of Cardiometabolic Disease: A Systematic Review of Prospective Cohort Studies.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- How Does the Ultra-Processed Food Industry Drive Consumption Through Product Design and Marketing? Mapping a Complex Commercial System According to Expert Mental Models and Evidence Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- A narrative review of qualitative studies exploring the normalization of gambling for youth and younger adults.Health promotion international · 2026Review
- Food-environment policies for child nutrition in Ecuador and Latin America: beyond front-of-package labels and advertising restrictions.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Review
- Seeing Oneself in the Feed: Racialized Targeting in Food Marketing and Its Impact on Adolescents' Visual Interest and Unhealthy Food Preferences.Journal of experimental social psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Financialization, Food Sovereignty, and Oral Health: A Structured Narrative Review Within the One Health Framework for Sustainable Food Systems.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Review
- Public knowledge of ultra-processed foods: Insights from a national survey of Australian adults.Nutrition journal · 2026Article
- Ultraprocessed food research and scientific discourse.Nature food · 2026Review
- Shrinking appetites: Will GLP-1 adoption in high-income countries accelerate Big Food's push into low- and middle-income countries?Globalization and health · 2026Article
- Rethinking fussiness in commercial food contexts.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Ultra-processed food consumption in Scotland: a nationally representative analysis of sociodemographic patterns and dietary contributions.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Mapping the Healthiness of Community Food Environments and Their Association With the Socioeconomic Index for Areas (SEIFA) in the South Coast of NSW.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2026Article
- Public policies addressing unhealthy diets in the South-East Asia region: identifying and countering the arguments that undermine policy implementation.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Beyond diet and health: scoping umbrella review of the wider impact and influence of ultra-processed foods.BMC public health · 2026Article
- A conflict of visions in nutrition science: polarization, power, and the case of Ultra-Processed Foods.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Culinary competency as a protective factor against ultra-processed food consumption and unhealthy cooking practices: a comparative study between type 1 diabetes patients and healthy controls.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUltra-processed food (UPF) and Ultra-processed beverage (UPB) consumption is associated with higher risks of numerous non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Yet global consumption of these products is rising due to profound changes in production, processing, manufacturing, marketing, retail, and consumption practices, alongside the growth of the resources and political influence of Big Food. Whilst the sales of UPFs and UPBs in high-income countries (HICs) are stagnating, sales are rapidly expanding in more populous middle-income countries (MICs). In this paper, we adopt a political economy of food systems approach to understand how growth of Big Food in MICs drives the NCD pandemic.
methodsWe conducted a mixed methods synthesis review. This involved quantitative data collection and development of descriptive statistics; a search for academic, market and grey literature on the expansion of UPF in MICs; and the development of themes, three illustrative case examples (South Africa, Colombia, and Indonesia), and synthesis of the enablers of successful campaigns in MICs into recommendations for public health campaigns.
resultsWe project that the combined sales volume of UPFs in MICs will reach equivalency with HICs by 2024, and the total sales volume of UPBs in MICs is already significantly higher than in HICs. Similarly, annual growth in UPF sales is higher in MICs compared to HICs. We also show how Big Food has entrenched its presence within MICs through establishing global production and hyper-local distribution networks, scaling up its marketing, challenging government policies and scientific expertise, and co-opting civil society. We argue that public health can counter the influence of Big Food by developing an expanded global network of driven and passionate people with diverse skillsets, and advocating for increased government leadership.
conclusionThe projected increase in sales of UPFs and UPBs in MICs raises major concerns about the global capacity to prevent and treat NCDs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.