NOVA Explained: How to Sort Any Food Into Processing's Four Categories

The NOVA system classifies foods into four groups based on processing, distinguishing between unprocessed, minimally processed, processed culinary ingredients, and ultra-processed foods. Understanding this system helps in making healthier food choices by identifying and limiting intake of ultra-processed items.

Isabella Cortez

October 22, 2026 · 5 min read

NOVA, the food classification system developed by Brazilian researchers in 2009, sorts everything you eat into four groups based on the nature, extent, and purpose of the processing it has undergone: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods. The distinction that matters most for health is the last one. Studies using NOVA, including the large French NutriNet-Santé cohort and three major U.S. prospective cohorts, have linked high intakes of ultra-processed foods to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and weight gain—though these are observed associations, not proven causes.

Understanding the NOVA Food Classification System

NOVA was created to cut through confusion about the loosely used term "processed food," as UC Davis food writers explain. Rather than judging a food by its nutrients alone, the system asks what was done to it and why. A paper by the system's architects, published in a public-health journal, describes NOVA as "the food classification based on the nature, extent and purpose of food processing that places foodstuffs in four groups, one of which is specified as ultra-processed food and drink products."

The framework has been adopted widely in nutrition research. The U.S. National Cancer Institute uses NOVA to classify foods in dietary assessment tools and national survey data, and a World Health Organization report cited by the NOVA authors applied it to compare diets across the USA, Canada, Brazil, and Colombia. Harvard's Nutrition Source notes that the system is recognized by the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Pan American Health Organization—though not currently by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or USDA.

NOVA Group 1: Unprocessed or Minimally Processed Foods

Group 1 covers the natural edible parts of plants and animals, altered only in ways that do not add ingredients: washing, drying, freezing, grinding, or vacuum-packing. Think fresh vegetables and fruit, whole grains, meat, and even pasta, which UC Davis lists here because it is made from a single basic food without additives. The key test is that nothing meaningful has been added—no salt, sugar, or fat beyond what the food itself contains.

Minimal processing exists mostly to preserve foods or make them ready to eat, not to change their fundamental character. Frozen vegetables, pasteurized milk, and dried legumes all remain Group 1 because the processing serves storage and safety rather than reformulation. This is why NOVA's logic can surprise people: a frozen pea is closer to the garden than a "natural-sounding" packaged snack.

Health Implications of Ultra-Processed Food Consumption

The strongest research case against ultra-processed foods comes from cohort studies that explicitly use NOVA. A prospective study of the NutriNet-Santé cohort examined ultra-processed food intake and cardiovascular disease risk; the same French cohort was analyzed for BMI change and risk of overweight and obesity in a 2020 PLOS Medicine paper. Three large U.S. prospective cohorts were used to study ultra-processed food consumption and type 2 diabetes risk, reported in Diabetes Care in 2023.

These studies observe associations rather than prove causation, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has reviewed the evidence base with that framing. One mechanism the NOVA authors themselves emphasize is displacement: their summary of NOVA-based studies concludes that ultra-processed products "displace unprocessed or minimally processed foods and freshly prepared dishes and meals." A diet heavy in Group 4 crowds out the foods and meals built from Groups 1 and 2. The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition authors add an open question—whether the health links stem from food structure or from specific ingredients and additives—which remains unresolved.

NOVA Food Classification Decision Framework

Use the sequence of questions below to classify any food. Answer them in order; the first "yes" places the food in a group. The framework applies NOVA's exclusionary criteria—the purpose and extent of processing—to resolve ambiguous cases.

NOVA classification decision matrix
Step	Question	If yes	Worked example
1	Is it an edible part of a plant or animal, altered only by washing, drying, freezing, grinding, or vacuum-packing, with no added ingredients?	Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed	Frozen peas, fresh fruit, plain milk
2	Is it a substance extracted and refined for cooking—oil, butter, sugar, salt, herbs, spices—used to prepare dishes rather than eaten alone?	Group 2: Processed culinary ingredient	Olive oil, table salt
3	Is it a simple combination of Group 1 and Group 2 items, such as food preserved with salt or made at home from few ingredients?	Group 3: Processed food	Canned vegetables with salt
4	Does it contain industrial ingredients not used in home cooking—emulsifiers, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, thickeners, or artificial sweeteners—across multiple processing steps?	Group 4: Ultra-processed	Soft drinks, packaged snacks

NOVA classification decision matrix

Step

Question

If yes

Worked example

Is it an edible part of a plant or animal, altered only by washing, drying, freezing, grinding, or vacuum-packing, with no added ingredients?

Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed

Frozen peas, fresh fruit, plain milk

Is it a substance extracted and refined for cooking—oil, butter, sugar, salt, herbs, spices—used to prepare dishes rather than eaten alone?

Group 2: Processed culinary ingredient

Olive oil, table salt

Is it a simple combination of Group 1 and Group 2 items, such as food preserved with salt or made at home from few ingredients?

Group 3: Processed food

Canned vegetables with salt

Does it contain industrial ingredients not used in home cooking—emulsifiers, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, thickeners, or artificial sweeteners—across multiple processing steps?

Group 4: Ultra-processed

Soft drinks, packaged snacks

The classic ambiguous case is yogurt. Harvard's Nutrition Source explains that plain yogurt is minimally processed, but fruited yogurt with added sweeteners could be labeled either processed or ultra-processed depending on how much sweetener and which chemical additives it contains. Run it through the matrix: plain yogurt stops at Step 1; a sweetened fruit version fails Step 1, and its final group depends on whether the ingredient list crosses the line into industrial additives at Step 4.

Two habits make the framework reliable in practice. First, read the ingredient list rather than the front of the package—NOVA classifies by ingredients and process, not marketing language. Second, expect genuine borderline cases; expert reviewers have documented disagreement even among food and nutrition specialists, so a defensible either-way call on a borderline product is consistent with the system, not a misuse of it.