The global debate on food systems is entering a decisive new phase. For decades, international discussions about food focused only on production and trade. Today, a far more complex challenge stands before us: how to guarantee diets that are healthy, sustainable and capable of protecting both humans and the planet.
Last week, during the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva, the side event “Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health: Evidence, Policies and Global Action,” organized jointly by the governments of Brazil, France, Mexico and Uruguay, reflected the growing recognition that Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) are no longer merely a nutrition issue. They are now understood as a major public health, environmental and governance challenge. And for that, the existing rules of CODEX for ensuring food safety are not enough.
Representing the authors of The Lancet Series on Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health, Professor Patricia Jaime presented compelling evidence at the event linking UPFs to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and broader deterioration in dietary quality. More importantly, the event signaled that governments are beginning to move from scientific consensus toward coordinated regulatory action. Brazil is also advancing discussions for what could become a resolution on ultra-processed foods — a historic step in international food governance.
The roots of this debate go back at least a decade. In 2016, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) organized the landmark International Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition. That conference already anticipated many of the concerns that dominate the debate today: the rapid global expansion of unhealthy diets, the rise of obesity, the environmental costs of industrial food systems and the urgent need to reconnect agriculture, nutrition and sustainability.
At the time, these ideas faced even stronger resistance. Global food governance remained centered only on food safety in the narrow sense of avoiding contamination and facilitating trade. The notion that we should also regulate food according to nutritional quality was considered controversial by many major players concerned about the impact on their food exports.
Yet the evidence kept growing. By 2019, The Lancet Commission on Obesity introduced the concept of the “Global Syndemic,” arguing that obesity, undernutrition and climate change are deeply interconnected crises driven by the same dysfunctional food systems. That same year, FAO published the report, “Ultra-processed foods, diet quality and human health,” produced under the leadership of Professor Carlos Monteiro and grounded in the NOVA food classification system developed in Brazil. This publication represented an important turning point. Although controversial in some circles, it helped bring scientific legitimacy to a debate that is now reshaping global nutrition policies.
Brazil’s contribution to this transformation has been unique. The country developed one of the world’s most innovative dietary guidelines in 2014, emphasizing fresh and minimally processed foods instead of focusing exclusively on nutrients and calories. Brazilian researchers were pioneers in demonstrating that excessive food processing itself — not merely sugar, fat or salt content in isolation — profoundly affects health outcomes.
Today, this perspective is gradually influencing international policy discussions. The recent decision by the Spanish Congress to urge the European Union to establish a common legal definition for ultra-processed foods shows that the NOVA classification is moving from academic debate into regulatory frameworks. Similar discussions are advancing in Latin America in countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, and increasingly within global institutions.
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At the same time, the issue of UPFs is becoming central to the broader One Health agenda. The One Health approach recognizes that human and animal health, environmental sustainability, and food systems are inseparable. The rise of ultra-processed foods is deeply connected to industrial agricultural models based on monocultures, excessive chemical inputs, aggressive food marketing and highly concentrated supply chains. These systems contribute not only to chronic diseases but also to biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change.
This is why the recent WHO event on “Ultra-Processed Foods: A One Health Agenda for Action and Accountability,” held during the One Health Summit in Lyon, represents such an important milestone. The fight against UPFs is no longer confined to ministries of health. It increasingly intersects with climate negotiations, agricultural policies, urban planning and social protection systems. This broader perspective is particularly important for developing countries.
One of the great paradoxes of our time is that hunger and obesity increasingly coexist within the same societies, the same communities and sometimes even the same households. Poor families often rely on ultra-processed foods not because they prefer them, but because healthy diets remain economically inaccessible. The challenge therefore is not simply producing more and more food. It is guaranteeing equitable access to nutritious food within healthier and more sustainable food environments for all.
Brazil understands this reality better than others because it has lived through both sides of the equation: the successful fight against hunger through the Fome Zero Strategy and the rapid expansion of obesity linked to deteriorating food environments in the last decades.
The next step in global food governance must therefore go beyond safety trade flows alone. We need international frameworks capable of regulating unhealthy food systems with the same seriousness once applied to tobacco control. Taxes on sugary drinks, restrictions on marketing to children, front-of-package warning labels, public procurement of healthy foods and support for family farming must become part of a coherent global agenda.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Drinks at a supermarket. Cover Photo Credit: Victor Martianov.
