ABA emphasizes nutrition over processing in UPF comments

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ABA emphasizes nutrition over processing in UPF comments

27 Oct 2025

Mari Rydings

Mari Rydings is a versatile content creator, editor and marketer with experience developing dynamic, results-driven materials for B2B and B2C audiences. As the editorial director for Avant Food Media, she leads the day-to-day editorial operations for the company’s print and digital magazines, newsletters and social media platforms. Outside of work, she loves reading, hiking, putting together jigsaw puzzles and spending time with her husband and their twin daughters.

WASHINGTON, DC — If the food industry had a word of the year, the word for 2025 would be “ultra-processed.” Discussions on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have dominated conversations and media as manufacturers and consumers try to gain a better understanding of what UPFs are and how they could impact food consumption.

In an effort to create a uniform, federally recognized definition of UPFs, the FDA and USDA put out a Request for Information (RIF) in late summer, with the stated purpose of improving nutrition to reduce chronic illnesses and premature death and improve health outcomes in general by giving consumers more informed choices.

The American Bakers Association (ABA) recently responded to the request on behalf of the commercial baking industry, couching its comments around the stated goal, noting that the group’s members fully support FDA’s and USDA’s efforts to improve the consumers health. In its eight-page response, ABA suggested that taking a nutrition-based approach vs. focusing on processing would be more beneficial in achieving the agencies’ goals.

The association encouraged an adjustment to the current approach, expressing concern that focusing on processing takes consumer attention away from the nutritional content, which is what can improve health outcomes. It urged the FDA and USDA to focus on the holistic nutritional composition of grain foods, citing the broad range of healthy, nutrient-dense whole grain products, items with added fiber, and enriched products fortified with folic acid that commercial bakeries produce.

“These shelf-stable, ready-to-eat pantry staples play a particularly crucial role in meeting the nutritional needs of consumers and helping millions of Americans maintain healthy, well-balanced diets while also helping ensure food access to all communities,” ABA wrote.

The association also expressed concern that categorizing grain foods as “ultra-processed” and adding warning labels or restricting their availability could have a negative, unintended consequence on public health by making it harder for consumers — especially those in rural, vulnerable or underserved communities — to access important nutrients they are already under-consuming or encouraging people to avoid foods that contribute to a healthy diet.

Throughout the comments, ABA emphasized its members’ view that every step in the definition process should be rooted in science.