ArticlePublic health nutrition2025
Exploring disparities in the proportion of ultra-processed foods and beverages purchased in grocery stores by US households in 2020.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ultra-Processed Food Dietary Patterns and Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of NHANES 2021-2023.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Changes in Neighborhood Foodscapes From 2003 to 2023 by Area Rurality in the United States.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- Ultraprocessed Food and Corporate Influence: Evidence, Regulation, and Policy Pathways to Address Chronic Disease in the United States.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- Quantifying the availability of hyper-palatable foods in US food stores and household purchasing behaviour.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Ultra-processed foods and accelerated aging in adults: an emerging public health challenge for nutrition and functional health.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Associations of dietary indices with risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in hypertensive adults.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of ultra-processed foods on pediatric health.Obesity pillars · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAmerican diets are increasingly based on ultra-processed foods (UPF). Current research, particularly on socio-economic differentials, is lacking. This study aimed to provide an updated examination of US household purchases of UPF and how this differs by race-ethnicity, household income and household education.
designThe NielsenIQ Consumer Panel 2020 was utilised for analysis. Each food and beverage product purchased by US households was assigned a level of processing under the Nova level of processing classification system. The volume of UPF purchased overall and by food group was determined for each Nova processing group and examined by race-ethnicity, education and income. Results were stratified by race-ethnicity within each income group. A
settingThis study analysed data from the Nielsen IQ Consumer Panel 2020 which recorded household food purchases in the USA.
participantsThe Nielsen IQ Homescan Consumer Panel is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of around 35 000 and 60 000 US households.
resultsOf 33 054 687 products purchased by 59 939 US households in 2020, 48 % of foods and 38 % of beverages were considered UPF. Categories with the highest proportion of purchases deriving from UPF included carbonated soft drinks (90 %), mixed dishes and soups (81 %) and sweets and snacks (71 %). Slightly higher but statistically significant proportions of UPF purchases occurred in the lowest income and education groups and among non-Hispanic whites.
conclusionsIt is concerning that household purchases of UPF in the USA are high. Policies that reduce consumption of UPF may help reduce diet-related health inequalities.
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