Man wearing a blue shirt and black shorts pushes a cart down the aisle of a grocery store. In the foreground is a shelf with pasta on it. Man is walking towards the camera.

Whole Foods vs. Walmart: New research reveals hidden realities of ultra-processed foods in stores

The American grocery store is a place where a bevy of food, drink and sundries are at shoppers’ fingertips.

But researchers with the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University have found that despite the abundance of food options available on grocery shelves most contain processed or ultra-processed ingredients.

Northeastern researchers analyzed ingredient lists of food available online from Target, Whole Foods and Walmart. The results were collected in GroceryDB, an online database of over 50,000 foods and it is searchable on the website Truefood. The study reveals the degree of food processing, empowering consumers to make informed choices.

“Food labels omit key information: whether a product is natural, processed or ultra processed,” says Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the Robert Gray Dodge professor of network science and a distinguished university professor at Northeastern. “Inspired by mounting evidence that food processing affects our health, we set out to change that.”

Read more from Northeastern Global News.

Photo by AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Network Science Program
Physics