I noticed
a story on the BBC recently it said ...
"UPFs tend to contain more than five ingredients, which are not usually found in home cooking, such as additives, sweeteners and chemicals to improve the food's texture or appearance."
It also said "There is no one definition that everyone agrees on, but
the NOVA classification is often used"
The nova link has a lot of info, but just taking a super quick look we have this ...
Group 1 Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
Group 2 Processed culinary ingredients
Group 3 Processed foods
Group 4 Ultra-processed food and drink products
"Ingredients only found in ultra-processed products include substances not commonly used in culinary preparations, and additives whose purpose is to imitate sensory qualities of group 1 foods or of culinary preparations of these foods, or to disguise undesirable sensory qualities of the final product."
I've been specifically avoiding foods with a lot of additives for almost 1.5 years now. I tend to pick up a product, and if the ingredients read like a chemistry experiment it is immediately rejected