NOVA group 1: unprocessed and minimally processed foods
Food with things removed from it, and nothing added.
Group 1 is food that has had things removed and nothing added. Cleaning, peeling, grinding, drying, chilling, freezing, pasteurising and vacuum packing all leave a food in group 1, because none of them adds a substance.
This surprises people, because it means frozen peas, dried pasta, plain rice, a bag of flour and a whole chicken are all group 1. Fresh is not the test. Addition is.
On a receipt
Group 1 lines are the ones a till abbreviates least destructively, because the names are short to begin with. BANANAS LOOSE is unambiguous. Where it gets hard is anything that could be either: MILK 2L is group 1, but a flavoured milk drink is not, and twenty characters does not always separate them. See how to read a supermarket receipt.
The line to group 3
A group 1 food becomes group 3 the moment something from group 2 is added to it and it is still recognisably the original food. Olives are group 1; olives in brine are group 3. Everything here sits under ultra-processed food, which explains the whole system and how to tell the groups apart in a shop.
Common questions
- Are frozen vegetables ultra-processed?
- No. Freezing removes nothing and adds nothing, so plain frozen vegetables are group 1. A frozen vegetable product with a sauce is a different question.
- Is milk group 1?
- Plain milk is, including pasteurised, semi-skimmed and skimmed. Pasteurisation is a heat treatment rather than an addition.
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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