Charting Availability of Processed and Unprocessed Foods in School Neighbourhood Nutrition Environments in an Urban Australian Setting

Table 1

Summary of degrees of processing of food and drinks.

Category	Definition	Example
Unprocessed/minimally processed food items	Single-ingredient foods with no or very slight modifications	Plain milk, fresh, frozen, or dried fruit and vegetables, and plain nuts
Basic processed food items	Single food components “obtained by extraction or purification” or “processed for basic preservation or precooking” [43, p. 1253]	Unsweetened fruit juice and canned fruit or vegetables
Moderately processed food items	Single minimally or moderately processed foods with addition of flavour additives for the purpose of enhancing flavour	Sweetened/flavoured juice or milk, potato chips, whole-grain bread products, and sweetened/flavoured yogurt
Highly processed food items	Multi-ingredient industrially formulated mixtures processed to the extent that they are no longer recognizable as their original plant/animal source	Fruit drinks, sports drinks, soft drinks, energy drinks, coffee beverages, flavoured water, fruit snacks, processed lunchmeats, refined-grain bread products, cookies, pastries, salty snacks, ice cream, candy, chocolate, and popsicles