How Processed Are Popular Indian Food Brands?

Nutrition experts recommend limiting or avoiding ultra-processed foods (UPFs), as they are generally unhealthy. Simply put, ultra-processed foods are those that contain ingredients you wouldn’t usually find in a home kitchen — such as soy lecithin, maltodextrin or dextrose.

The NOVA classification system categorizes food products into four groups based on their level of processing:

1 - Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
2 - Processed culinary ingredients
3 - Processed foods
4 - Ultra-processed foods

The determination of the NOVA group is based on the category of the product and on the ingredients it contains.

See how each brand’s product mix looks by NOVA classification, based on product counts from Open Food Facts, the world's largest open data project on food -

Product counts vary and may not represent the full portfolio of each brand. For instance, Amul has ~1200 SKUs but only the products that are rated on Open Food Facts are shown.  To see the specific items that are covered, check the item-level data related to the chart and additional notes.

Also explore the NOVA classification of products for each brand, measured by the number of items listed in Open Food Facts for that brand - 

Select a brand to view its product mix (by count):  Aashirvaad Amul Britannia Cadbury Dabur Good Life Haldiram's Kellogg's Maggi More Nandini Nestle Parle Patanjali Saffola Sunfeast The Whole Truth Unibic Vedaka Yoga Bar

This dynamic chart uses crowd-sourced data from Open Food Facts (OFF) for product information.

To see why a product got its NOVA classification, check its page on Open Food Facts to know the reasoning.

Under the Food Processing section, click on the NOVA group to see the ingredients that indicate the specific classification

The above charts are informational visualizations and not a health or legal claim about any brand.

Also see -

• The Dark Side of Convenience: Processed Foods and the NCD Epidemic
• Food & Obesity