NOVA group 2: processed culinary ingredients
The things you cook with rather than eat on their own.
Group 2 is what you get by pressing, refining, grinding or drying a group 1 food into something used to season and cook other things. Oils, butter, lard, sugar, salt, vinegar, honey and syrups.
They are counted as their own group because they are rarely eaten alone. Their role is to turn group 1 into a meal, and doing so produces group 3.
Why this group is small and still matters
Group 2 is a short list and it is usually a small share of a shop's spend. It matters because it is the boundary that defines group 3: the whole classification hinges on the difference between adding one of these in a kitchen and building a product out of substances a kitchen does not stock. Everything here sits under ultra-processed food, which explains the whole system and how to tell the groups apart in a shop.
Common questions
- Is olive oil ultra-processed?
- No. Oils pressed or refined from a group 1 food are group 2, whatever the grade.
- Is sugar ultra-processed?
- Sugar itself is group 2. Most products built around it are group 4, which is a different statement.
One photo of a receipt answers this for your own shopping.
Bagged reads every line and reports what share of your food spend was ultra-processed, and which items it was.
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