Overview

• The WISEcode system ranks foods across five processing levels—minimal, light, moderate, ultra and super-ultra—based on ingredient health impact, added sugar content and known health-concern additives.
• Compared with the Nova model’s broad ultra-processed category, WISEcode’s analysis revealed finer gradations that separate products previously lumped together.
• Researchers applied the framework to a database of over 650,000 foods and 5,500 ingredients, finding each processing tier accounts for roughly 16–23 percent of items.
• The classification scheme was presented June 3 at the American Society for Nutrition’s NUTRITION2025 meeting in Orlando, Florida.
• Built as an iterative tool, the system will be continuously updated to reflect emerging scientific findings and guide both consumer choices and product development.