Ultra-processed food tracker

Food made industrially, mostly from ingredients extracted or modified from whole foods, often with additives you would not use when cooking at home, such as emulsifiers, flavourings or sweeteners. In the NOVA classification it is group 4.

NOVA is the most widely used system for grouping food by how much it has been processed. It has four groups: 1, unprocessed or minimally processed foods such as fruit, eggs and plain milk; 2, culinary ingredients such as oils, butter and salt; 3, processed foods such as tinned vegetables and cheese; and 4, ultra-processed foods such as fizzy drinks and packaged snacks.

Around 57% of calories in the average UK diet come from ultra-processed food, according to an analysis of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (Rauber et al., 2018). A later study found that share stayed at about 56% between 2008 and 2019.

Diets high in ultra-processed food tend to contain more free sugar, salt and saturated fat, and less fibre. Studies have also linked high intakes with poorer health outcomes, although most of that evidence is observational and researchers still debate the causes. Boone shows you how much is in your diet so you can decide what to change.

No. Freezing, tinning and drying are forms of processing, and foods like frozen vegetables, tinned beans and plain yoghurt can be a healthy part of your diet. NOVA separates these from ultra-processed foods, and so does Boone.

The ingredient list is the best clue. A long list including things you would not find in a kitchen, such as emulsifiers, modified starches or flavourings, usually points to group 4. Boone does this check for you when you scan a barcode or log a meal.

For products you scan by barcode, Boone assigns a NOVA group from the ingredient list. For meals you log by photo, it predicts the rating from what is on the plate and your purchase history. Both use an approach built on our own research into classifying ultra-processed food with the University of East Anglia.

On every product you scan by barcode, on every item from a receipt you scan, and on every meal you log by photo or text. Boone then adds them up so you can see your day and your week.

Boone combines the ratings of everything you log that day or week to show how much of your diet came from each processing group, so you can compare one week with the next.

Yes, when you log it by photo or text. Restaurants are not required to publish full ingredient lists, so ratings for food made to order are estimates based on what the dish usually contains.

Yes. Our free food database shows processing levels for thousands of restaurant items, supermarket brands and everyday foods. The app adds tracking across everything you eat.

No. Boone is not a banned list. It shows you where ultra-processed food shows up in your diet, so you can choose which changes are worth making and see whether they stick.

Boone suggests individual whole foods that fill gaps in your diet, chosen to be close to what you already eat, and you can add them to a shopping list. It does not give you recipes or meal plans.

Yes. Add the ingredients you would rather avoid and Boone flags where they appear, or might appear, in a product's ingredient list. Ingredient information is not always complete, so check the label if it matters to you.

Yes. Processing ratings are included on the free plan. Premium adds all insights, recommendations and your full history and trends.

Our work on using machine learning to identify ultra-processed food, carried out with the University of East Anglia, including our paper Gaussian Mixture Models for Identifying Ultra-Processed Foods, published in the HAIS 2026 conference proceedings (Springer). Read the paper

They are estimates based on the ingredient information available. Packaged products usually list every ingredient, so they are rated with more confidence than food made to order. Where information is limited, Boone shows the rating as an estimate.

Because their ingredients differ. Two loaves of bread can look the same, but one made from flour, water, yeast and salt is processed, while one with emulsifiers and preservatives is ultra-processed.

No. Boone is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat anything. If you have a health condition or ongoing symptoms, speak to your GP or a qualified healthcare professional.