Ultra-processed foods: WiseCode launches classification standard to combat consumer confusion

US food tech company WiseCode has launched a consumer-facing classification app and a brand verification program built around its own definition of ultra-processed food (UPF). The app caters to a market where competing frameworks and limited regulatory consensus are shaping — and complicating — how shoppers and manufacturers consume and produce UPFs.

WiseCode debuted both products at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, US, this week, where interest in clean label and minimally processed food are major themes. The company’s Non-UPF Shield is a verification mark for brands whose products clear WiseCode’s non-ultra-processed threshold, while a redesigned mobile app allows consumers to scan packaged goods and receive an instant classification. 

Both tools are powered by what the company calls the WiseCode UPF Standard, a five-tier ingredient-level framework that categorizes products from “Minimal” to “Super-Ultra Processed.”

Under the WiseCode standard, a product’s processing level is determined by evaluating its individual ingredients rather than broad food categories. The framework considers the degree of ingredient refinement, the contribution of added sugars, and the presence of industrial additives that the company associates with heavy processing or potential health consequences. That approach differs from Nova, which classifies foods primarily by the nature and purpose of their processing rather than ingredient-by-ingredient analysis.

The database underpinning both products covers more than 840,000 packaged food products across 15,000 attributes. Verification for brands is largely automated, drawing on the company’s ingredient database and public ingredient lists rather than paperwork-heavy audits, the company says. 

Standard pricing sits at US$200 per stock keeping unit (SKU) annually, with a launch offer of one free SKU and 50% off additional submissions for brands entering with three or more products.

UPFs: A crowded definitional space

WiseCode is entering a landscape already shaped by the Nova classification system, which groups foods into four processing-level categories and has underpinned much of the academic and public health discourse on UPFs for over a decade. More recently, the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s 2025 report explicitly flagged UPF as a category of concern — a significant regulatory signal, though one that stopped short of providing an operational definition for manufacturers or regulators to act on.

Ultra-processed snack foods are at the center of growing consumer and regulatory scrutiny in the US.That gap is increasingly being filled by private actors. WiseCode’s framework is distinctive in its ingredient-level granularity and tiered structure, and the company positions this specificity as a strength — particularly for brands seeking to understand which components of a formulation are driving an unfavorable classification. When products don’t meet the “Non-UPF” threshold, the company says it provides structured reformulation guidance identifying the specific processing drivers.

The proliferation of frameworks, however, raises practical questions. Without a shared standard anchored in regulation, consumers encounter different classifications depending on which tool, label, or system they consult — a dynamic that research from Innova Market Insights suggests may be contributing to a striking awareness-action gap. 

Innova found that while concern about UPFs is widespread, it is not consistently translating into purchase behavior change. As we reported from IFT First 2025, US consumers are aware of the UPF debate but are largely uncertain how to act on it at the shelf.

The brand verification question

The Non-UPF Shield operates on a paid model — brands submit SKUs for verification and pay an annual fee to carry the mark. This structure is common in the certification space, from non-GMO to organic, but it does position WiseCode simultaneously as the standard-setter and the commercial beneficiary of that standard’s adoption.

“Consumers need clarity. Brands need consistency,” says Peter Castleman, founder and chief executive at WISEcode. “Our standard was built to support both.”

Richard Black, the company’s chief scientific officer, frames the consumer problem in straightforwardly practical terms. “Awareness of UPF is rising, but shoppers still struggle to identify it consistently,” he says. “Our goal is to make processing visible and understandable in seconds.”

Infrastructure ahead of regulation

The broader context is one of regulatory momentum without regulatory precision. The DGA process has elevated UPFs as a policy concern in the US, and industry bodies are watching closely — but no federal definition has emerged to serve as a common reference point. In that environment, companies like WiseCode are building classification infrastructure that may either complement eventual regulatory frameworks or find itself superseded by them.

For brands navigating the current moment, the practical question is not only about which framework is correct, but which one their retail partners and consumers are likely to recognize.