| For now, Westgate and her team at Non-GMO Project are working to build a framework that will guide the seal launch. First up: defining ultra-processed foods.
The framework is straightforward. Ultra-processed foods get cobbled together in factories that rely on a vast palette of refined ingredients and additives that, on their own, don't resemble foods. These component parts contain things you probably don't have in your cupboards, including additives such as gums, emulsifiers, preservatives, dyes and more.
To begin with, the Non-UPF Verified team is identifying ingredients that will disqualify brands from achieving the seal, such as those dyes. They're turning to ingredients already banned in Europe, California and other states and municipalities as an easy starting point, even using banned ingredients lists from Whole Foods Market and other retailers to inform decisions.
"When people learn that an ingredient banned in the EU is sitting unlabeled in their child's granola bar, they react," Westgate says. "That's what happened with GMOs. It's happening again now."
But establishing a standard that Westgate said must "strike a balance between meaningfulness and achievability" involves more than just banning ingredients.
I chatted with Westgate at length about this new initiative and also participated in a webinar kicking off the seal's announcement, during which she repeatedly referred to "hyper-palatability" as an especially sinister trend in food manufacturing.
In short, scientists engineer food to drive addictive eating behaviors, often revolving around basic things such as fat, salt, sugar and texture. In addition, different manufacturing processes can confuse satiety signals, leading to overeating. "Hyper-palatable foods override the body's natural signals. They're engineered that way. And they've become normal," Westgate says. "But what we're accepting as normal is actually a slow erosion of vitality."
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