From the NYTimes:
Under one classification widely used among the scientific community, essentially any foods or drinks made with ingredients you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen are defined as ultraprocessed. If regulators adopt that sort of definition, nearly three-quarters of foods sold in the United States could be deemed ultraprocessed.
[…]
Many scientists support a strong definition, and noted that evidence linking ultraprocessed foods to a host of chronic diseases, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer, has grown in the last decade.
Civil Twilight 