What NOVA is

The four groups, in their authors’ words

In its authors’ own words (Monteiro and colleagues, 2019):

“NOVA classifies all foods and food products into four groups according to the extent and purpose of the industrial processing they undergo.”

Public Health Nutrition, “Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them” (open access). Read the article

The four groups, as published by Open Food Facts, which calls NOVA “a classification in 4 groups to highlight the degree of processing of foods”.

1. 1

   Unprocessed or minimally processed foods

   “Unprocessed (or natural) foods are edible parts of plants (seeds, fruits, leaves, stems, roots) or of animals (muscle, offal, eggs, milk), and also fungi, algae and water, after separation from nature.”

   An apple, an egg, dried lentils, plain yoghurt, frozen peas.

2. 2

   Processed culinary ingredients

   “Processed culinary ingredients, such as oils, butter, sugar and salt, are substances derived from Group 1 foods or from nature by processes that include pressing, refining, grinding, milling and drying.”

   What you cook with, not what you eat on its own.

3. 3

   Processed foods

   “Processed foods, such as bottled vegetables, canned fish, fruits in syrup, cheeses and freshly made breads, are made essentially by adding salt, oil, sugar or other substances from Group 2 to Group 1 foods.”

   A tin of sardines in oil, a jar of pickles, a loaf from the baker.

4. 4

   Ultra-processed foods

   “Ultra-processed foods, such as soft drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, reconstituted meat products and pre-prepared frozen dishes, are not modified foods but formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives, with little if any intact Group 1 food.”

   A soft drink, a packet of crisps, a filled sponge biscuit, a frozen ready meal.

Open Food Facts, “Nova groups for food processing” (the four definitions as published there). Read the page

Why, in 2026, a filled sponge biscuit does not grow on a tree

Take a filled sponge biscuit. Nobody picks it. Wheat is milled into flour, beet or cane is refined into sugar, a fat is pressed and refined; the three are mixed, baked, filled and wrapped, and the packet then waits on a shelf for weeks, and in your cupboard for a while more. By the definition above, that is group 4: a formulation made mostly from substances derived from foods, with additives, and little intact group 1 food.

The group does not say whether the biscuit is good or bad. It says what kind of thing it is: made, not grown. The same goes for a soft drink, a breakfast cereal, a ready meal or a sliced sandwich loaf. A food that keeps, travels and is ready to eat has been processed to do exactly that; it is the point of processing. In a supermarket, most shelves are groups 3 and 4, so the useful question is rarely “is it processed?”. It is “which one, among the products of the same kind?”.

Additives: why they are there

So an E number on a label is the sign of a substance that was evaluated and named, not a warning. Thanks to additives, among other means (heat, cold and packaging do a large part of the keeping), food can be made somewhere else, travel, sit in a shop and wait a few days for you. The other way round, each of us would need a piece of garden and the time to tend it, which few of us have. The useful question is not “does it contain additives?” but “how many, next to the other products of the same kind?”.

European Food Safety Authority, “Food additives”. Read the page

What the public health advice says, and what NOVA does not say

In the Invoc app

Next to the Nutri-Score letter, the app shows the product’s NOVA group, from 1 (unprocessed or minimally processed) to 4 (ultra-processed), as recorded in Open Food Facts, and the number of additives found in the ingredient list of its record (E numbers and named additives), grouped as 0, 1, 2 or 3 and more.

Products are compared with products of the same category. The first step compares those that also share the Nutri-Score letter, the NOVA group and the additive bucket; if fewer than 5 products share all four, the additive criterion is dropped, then the NOVA criterion, then only the letter is kept. NOVA group and additives are not part of Invoc’s index: they act as group walls.

So a filled sponge biscuit is placed next to other filled biscuits of the same group, not next to an apple. That is the one comparison that helps in the aisle.

How Invoc compares products: the method · Reading the Nutri-Score: the guide

Further reading

• Open Food FactsNova groups for food processingThe four NOVA groups, their authors, and how Open Food Facts works out a product’s group.
• Monteiro and colleagues, Public Health Nutrition, 2019Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify themThe classification explained by its authors. Open access, in English.
• European Food Safety AuthorityFood additivesWhat an additive is, E numbers, and who assesses them in Europe.
• Santé publique France, Manger BougerRéduire les boissons sucrées, aliments gras, sucrés, salés et ultra-transformésThe official dietary advice on ultra-processed products. In French.