Working Group on Food Matrix Effects

Why is this important?

Obesity rates continue to rise in the US and globally. The search for causal mechanisms has increased attention to the food supply, in particular industrially-processed foods. Purported characteristics of these foods (specifically those classified as “highly” or “ultra”-processed) that lead to adverse health outcomes such as weight gain include changes to the food matrix. Authors of a recently published research roadmap led by USDA noted that “research is needed to understand if changes in the food matrix affect digestive and metabolic responses as a food moves along the continuum from minimally processed to ultra-processed.” Simultaneously, a recent scoping review reported 16 hypothesized mechanisms underlying highly/ultra-processed food – weight relationships. There is an opportunity to document what is known about how changes to the food matrix impact hypothesized weight-related mechanisms that are found in the literature.