By Jennifer Rigby and Maggie Fick
London: The Novo Nordisk Basis and College of Copenhagen researchers have backtracked over a project to redefine how the world understands ultra-processed meals, after greater than 90 unbiased food scientists warned of confusion and conflicts of curiosity.
Professor Carlos Monteiro and colleagues in Brazil first coined the time period UPF round 15 years in the past and it has since been utilized by governments, the United Nations and customers searching for more healthy diets as a part of a wider classification system referred to as Nova.
However some scientists and the food trade have mentioned Nova is just too easy.
The Basis introduced the project in February, saying in a submit on its web site that has since been edited that it was time for a extra nuanced model of the system, which it dubbed “Nova 2.0”.
The project, led by College of Copenhagen researcher Susanne Bugel, didn’t embody Monteiro and his staff or have hyperlinks with their analysis.
On the finish of February, Monteiro launched an open letter questioning the project and sparking a response from different scientists, who warned of the confusion a equally-named system may trigger, in addition to the danger of implying that the established classification, and researchers from the International South, had been discredited.
“What is occurring on this case will not be an effort to refine Nova from inside, however slightly an try by a group with no connection to its improvement to create a parallel classification below the deceptive pretence of being a… ‘subsequent technology’ of Nova – a Nova 2.0,” Monteiro informed Reuters on Friday.
Bugel informed Reuters this week that her analysis staff had agreed to Monteiro’s needs and eliminated the reference to the Nova classification, and UPFs, from their project.
“Moreover that the general intention has not been modified,” she mentioned through electronic mail, including that the aim of the project was to deliver collectively researchers to look at the science of a food classification system involving processing and nutrient content material.
Monteiro and the opposite scientists additionally mentioned that the funding from the Novo Nordisk Basis, which is the proprietor of the controlling shareholder within the Danish drugmaker that has lately made big windfalls from well-liked weight problems medicine in addition to diabetes merchandise, represented a potential battle of curiosity. Additionally they famous hyperlinks between a number of the individuals concerned within the project and the food trade.
The Novo Nordisk Basis mentioned in a assertion to Reuters that it didn’t see a battle of curiosity.
“We’re supporting a public analysis project that hopefully can create new information on food and well being and allow customers to make wholesome selections,” a spokersperson mentioned, including that its grant choices have been totally separate from the drugmaker.
Bugel informed Reuters a small a part of earlier, separate work had been funded by the food trade, however the work had at all times been unbiased, and she or he had declared her pursuits on the project web site.
Monteiro mentioned he wouldn’t be becoming a member of the project.
Monteiro and Arne Astrup, the Basis’s head of diet, have beforehand clashed over UPFs in a main journal, with Astrup arguing that the time period risked demonising wholesome meals and added little to current pointers.
Monteiro says many research have proven that consuming UPFs is linked with poor-high quality diets in addition to elevated sickness and dying, including that the precise and interlinked mechanisms for this wanted extra analysis.
The Basis declined Reuters’ request to interview Astrup.
A weblog submit on the Basis’s web site had eliminated references to Nova 2.0 when it was reviewed by Reuters this week. The British Medical Journal, which had been approached to reasonable a workshop as a part of the project, mentioned it was not taking part. (Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Maggie Fick; Modifying by Kate Mayberry)
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