UPF In the News
BMJ Study Connects Ultra-Processed Foods to 32 Health Risks Across 10 Million People
A landmark 2024 umbrella review analyzing nearly 10 million participants found convincing evidence linking higher ultra-processed food intake to approximately 50% increased cardiovascular death risk, 48-53% elevated anxiety and mental disorder risk, and 12% greater type 2 diabetes incidence. Source
Daily Insight
The Food Industry’s Tobacco Moment
“We’ve seen this movie before. The tobacco industry ignored the signs until it was too late. The food industry still has a chance to rewrite the ending.”
This isn’t a skirmish over labeling or advertising. This is a systemic challenge, and it’s signaling a new era of legal accountability for the entire chain of food commerce. If you touch the product, move the product, or market the product… you’re part of it. Source
Legal Update
Traceability Rules Tighten While ‘Clean Labels’ Stay Vague
Federal regulators are tightening back-end food safety infrastructure through the FDA’s Food Traceability Final Rule (FSMA 204) requiring detailed recordkeeping for high-risk foods by July 2028, while brands simultaneously invest in “clean label” marketing that rarely discloses processing intensity; mirroring Big Tobacco’s filtered cigarette strategy that offered consumer reassurance while resisting comprehensive ingredient transparency and health warnings for decades.
Regulators now demand deep, auditable transparency in back-end systems, raising the structural question of whether that same standard will reach front-of-pack labels where WISEcode’s FoodTechAI™ already delivers precision processing intelligence that bypasses regulatory delay. Source