Hmm. I can't tell whether this is a mistake, disagreement, or ambiguity in the NOVA classification system that the paper claims to use. Their Appendix A, Table S1 clearly lists as ultra-processed foods: "Meat alternatives: Vegetarian sausage/burger; Tofu/tempeh/TVP/soya mince; Quorn". I would think all those things are quite different to each other, but not to this study's classifications.
I was unable to find an authoritative source on what the NOVA classification of tofu actually is, or how the NOVA classification system methodology even works. Secondary and tertiary sources on the internet disagree with each other, and ChatGPT cites Brazilian institutions like "NUPENS" whose websites are on Google but seem to be either dead or inaccessible from the US.
Edit: There seems to be a third-party database, https://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=t..., that lists many tofus in category 3, "processed" (because they have salt and oil added) or 4, "ultraprocessed" (because of gelling agents).
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But even excluding tofu, they also consider things like bread (yeast and wheat?) to be ultra-processed, or potato wedges, or fruit juices, or canned vegetable soups, along with ketchup.
To be sure, many of those CAN be commercially processed, but I think this particular study might be trying a bit too hard to lump together a bunch of ambiguous foods in order to try to find power in their stats? It's hard to trust a dietary analysis that treats sugary sodas the same as pasta sauce or whole-grain bread...
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Hmm. I can't tell whether this is a mistake, disagreement, or ambiguity in the NOVA classification system that the paper claims to use. Their Appendix A, Table S1 clearly lists as ultra-processed foods: "Meat alternatives: Vegetarian sausage/burger; Tofu/tempeh/TVP/soya mince; Quorn". I would think all those things are quite different to each other, but not to this study's classifications.
I was unable to find an authoritative source on what the NOVA classification of tofu actually is, or how the NOVA classification system methodology even works. Secondary and tertiary sources on the internet disagree with each other, and ChatGPT cites Brazilian institutions like "NUPENS" whose websites are on Google but seem to be either dead or inaccessible from the US.
Edit: There seems to be a third-party database, https://world.openfoodfacts.org/cgi/search.pl?search_terms=t..., that lists many tofus in category 3, "processed" (because they have salt and oil added) or 4, "ultraprocessed" (because of gelling agents).
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But even excluding tofu, they also consider things like bread (yeast and wheat?) to be ultra-processed, or potato wedges, or fruit juices, or canned vegetable soups, along with ketchup.
To be sure, many of those CAN be commercially processed, but I think this particular study might be trying a bit too hard to lump together a bunch of ambiguous foods in order to try to find power in their stats? It's hard to trust a dietary analysis that treats sugary sodas the same as pasta sauce or whole-grain bread...