As Federal Definition of Ultra-Processed Foods Stalls, Yuka Releases Landmark Report Mapping the System Behind America's Diet-Related Health Crisis

With ultra-processed foods now making up 70% of the U.S. food supply and accounting for more than 60% of children's daily calorie intake, the global food-scanning app is shedding light on the decades-long tactics behind UPFs while calling on federal regulators to act.

NEW YORK, May 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Yuka, the independent food and cosmetic scoring app used by more than 85 million people worldwide, today released Ultra-Processed Foods: Decoding a Food Transformation with Major Health Consequences, a comprehensive report unpacking how ultra-processed foods (UPFs) came to dominate the American diet, their impact on human health, the powerful forces behind their continued proliferation, and what everyday consumers can do to reduce their exposure and reclaim control over their health.

The comprehensive six-part investigation arrives at a pivotal moment for U.S. food policy. In July 2025, the FDA and USDA jointly issued a Request for Information to help define ultra-processed foods at the federal level. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised a federal definition by April 2026. That deadline has passed. According to recent reporting, agencies remain divided, and no national definition has been released.

Meanwhile, California moved without Washington. In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1264, the first U.S. law to legally define ultra-processed foods and phase the most concerning ones out of public schools by 2035, setting the stage for what can be done to protect children's health and beyond.

"Science is no longer the bottleneck. Over 100 studies associate UPF consumption to an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, depression, and early death. The bottleneck is political will," said Julie Chapon, CEO of Yuka and co-author of the report. "California showed it can be done. The federal government can do it too. This report lays out how the system was built, why it persists, and why it must be dismantled."

Key findings from the report:

• Ultra-processed foods now make up 70% of the food supply in the United States. In the US and the UK, they account for more than 60% of the daily calories consumed by children and adolescents.
• Eight multinationals control about 42% of the global UPF market, a $1.5 trillion industry. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Mondelez alone spent $13.2 billion on advertising in 2024, roughly four times the WHO's annual budget.
• The harm isn't only about calories or nutrients. Recent clinical trials, including a 2019 NIH study and a 2025 trial published in Nature Medicine, show that even when nutritionally matched, UPF diets cause greater weight gain than minimally processed ones. The problem lies in the processing itself.
• The same playbook used by Big Tobacco is being used today by Big Food. In the 1980s, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds acquired major food companies including Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco, and brought tobacco's tactics with them: the manufacture of scientific doubt, strategic lobbying efforts that shifted attention away from ultra-processed foods, and aggressive marketing to children through cartoon mascots and gamification.

A track record of action in France

Yuka is not new to this fight. In France, Yuka has joined forces with consumer watchdog Foodwatch and patients' rights coalition France Assos Santé to launch a national petition calling on the French government to regulate ultra-processed foods. The petition, launched on April 28th, has gathered over 120,000 signatures in only a few days. It demands three concrete measures:

• A ban on advertising ultra-processed foods to children across all media platforms
• A ban on manipulative marketing tactics on UPF packaging, including mascots, cartoon characters, collectible toys, and misleading health claims
• Mandatory front-of-pack labeling identifying ultra-processed foods

These demands are grounded in policies that have already been implemented in other countries. Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Portugal, and the United Kingdom have all adopted some form of UPF marketing restriction or front-of-pack warning labeling with measurable results. In Chile, three years after the introduction of mandatory warning labels, purchases of products high in sugar dropped by 37% (Taillie et al., PLoS Medicine, 2024). In Peru, the share of products requiring a warning label fell from 82% to 62% in two years as manufacturers reformulated (Saavedra-Garcia et al., 2022).

Helping US consumers, and ready to support US regulators

The final section of the report gives consumers practical tools to identify and avoid ultra-processed foods in their daily lives — from reading ingredient lists to recognizing the industrial ingredients and additives that signal ultra-processing. This builds on what Yuka has been doing for nearly a decade: empowering consumers to make informed choices through a free, independent app.

"Americans aren't getting sicker because they lack willpower. They're getting sicker because they live in a food environment engineered to maximize consumption and corporate profit, often at the expense of public health. That's not a personal failing. It's a policy failure." said Chapon. "We've spent years working on these issues in Europe alongside researchers, regulators, and consumer advocates. Now, we're ready to bring that experience to the U.S. and collaborate with American health authorities, including the FDA, as the country develops its own regulatory framework."

About the report

Ultra-Processed Foods: Decoding a Food Transformation with Major Health Consequences is a 50-page report authored by Julie Chapon, CEO and co-founder of Yuka, and Gabriela Mourad Vicenssuto, nutrition engineer at Yuka. It draws on more than 200 sources, including 65 peer-reviewed studies and landmark research published in journals such as The Lancet, Nature Medicine, The BMJ, and JAMA Internal Medicine.

The full report is available at https://yuka.io/en/ultra-processed-foods-dossier/

About Yuka
Founded in 2017, Yuka is an entirely independent impact project. The app lets users scan the barcodes of food and cosmetic products to assess their health impact, with the aim of bringing more transparency to product composition and empowering consumers to make better choices for their health. Today, the app has over 85 million users worldwide, including 25 million in the United States. https://yuka.io/en/

Media Contact

Natacha Favry, [email protected]

SOURCE Yuca Corp