From kitchen to laboratory: how the food industry has transformed what we eat over the past two centuries

For millennia, transforming food was a matter of survival. Salting meat for the winter, fermenting milk to prevent it from spoiling, cooking to aid digestion. The logic was simple: starting from a raw ingredient and applying a few basic steps. In this way, the final product remained identifiable.

Today, walking through supermarket aisles, the contrast is striking. Artificial colors, standardized shapes, long ingredient lists… The simple gestures of the past have given way to complex industrial processes that are impossible to reproduce at home. As a result, ultra-processed foods now represent between 60% and 70% of the food supply in many countries. Some populations are exposed to them in a particularly concerning way, especially younger people. In the United States and the United Kingdom, ultra-processed foods account for more than 60% of the calories consumed by children and adolescents^1-3. In France, Canada, or Australia, this figure is around 50%. Even in Italy or Brazil, where exposure is lower, it exceeds 25%⁴.

How did we get here? What are the health consequences? How can we learn to identify ultra-processed foods in order to limit their presence in our diet?

The birth of industrial food

In 1810, Napoleon was looking for a way to preserve food to feed his troops. A Frenchman, Nicolas Appert, invented a simple process: heating food in sealed containers. This is how modern canning was born! For the first time, food processing became standardized. Fruits and vegetables, fish, and meat could be transported over long distances and stored for long periods^5-7.

With the second industrial revolution, working days became longer. Food then had to adapt to these new rhythms: produce more, faster, and be able to store longer. It was in this context that, at the end of the 19th century, these food processing and preservation techniques gradually spread among the civilian population.

It was during this period that brands still omnipresent today were born. Nestlé was founded in 1866 with a milk and wheat formula intended for infants who could not be breastfed⁸. Maggi was founded in 1885 with the first instant soup designed to quickly and cheaply feed a working-class population with little time and limited means⁹. The following year, Coca-Cola appeared, initially as a syrup sold as a tonic to help endure work¹⁰. Campbell became famous in 1897 with its ready-made canned soups, ideal for urban life and factory work¹¹. Processing was no longer only about preserving: it made it possible to feed increasingly large urban populations, with foods that were easy to distribute and cheaper to produce.

It was also during this period that the industry began to use synthetic substances. Certain dyes, notably derived from coal and sometimes highly toxic, were used to improve the appearance of products and mask their poor quality. These practices quickly led to widespread misuse, to the point that the United States adopted the Food and Drugs Act in 1906, one of the first laws regulating the use of food additives, in order to control the use of these dyes¹².

The two world wars further accelerated this movement. Millions of soldiers had to be fed with products that were easy to transport, stable, and ready to consume. Powdered milk, dehydrated soups, canned goods, and packaged rations became widespread^13,14.

At the end of the conflicts, these innovations did not disappear. The factories and processes were already in place. So, in order to find new outlets for these products, the industry turned toward the civilian market. Products designed for the military then entered households and gradually transformed everyday eating habits¹⁵.

The rise of ready-to-eat foods

After the Second World War, a period of rapid economic growth began. Reconstruction stimulated activity, and living standards rose rapidly. Households became widely equipped: refrigerators, freezers, and then microwaves entered kitchens.

At the same time, the organization of work evolved. More and more women entered the labor market. Thus, in the United States, the share of women working outside the home rose from around 20% at the beginning of the 1950s to more than 40% in 1970¹⁶. The time spent in the kitchen decreased, and the food industry saw an opportunity: to offer prepared products, ready to eat or to reheat¹⁷. Advertising campaigns then massively targeted women, promising them a double benefit: time savings and improved nutritional quality¹⁸. Kellogg’s, for example, promoted cereals said to contain “much more vitamins than whole grains themselves,” while Kraft cheddar was presented as providing “11 times more calcium than cream and more protein than meat.”

Frozen meals and portioned dishes multiplied. They were presented as modern, easy to use, and compatible with an increasingly constrained daily life. At this stage, these products were not yet all ultra-processed, but they established a lasting idea: it became possible to eat without cooking.

The boom of ultra-processed foods

From the 1970s onward, a new transformation accelerated. It no longer affected just how meals were prepared, but the very nature of food itself.

Agriculture became highly industrialized. Thanks to the massive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the production of certain crops exploded. Corn, wheat, and soy became the pillars of an intensive agricultural system, capable of producing in very large quantities, at low cost.

This overproduction pushed the industry to change its logic: rather than transforming agricultural products as a whole, it began to “break them down” to extract inexpensive components that are easy to store and combine: sugars, oils, starches, proteins. Thus, wheat is no longer only ground into flour: it is also fractionated into industrial ingredients such as starch or maltodextrin, used to give texture to products. At the same time, corn becomes a central raw material for producing industrial sugars, notably glucose syrup, which gradually replaces sugar in many products from the 1980s onward¹⁹.

At the same time, the two tobacco giants, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, invest heavily in the food industry. They seek to diversify their activities in the face of growing criticism of tobacco and the threats to their core business. They acquire major food companies such as Kraft, General Foods, or Nabisco, and apply a logic already proven in tobacco: use of flavorings, aggressive marketing, and targeting of children^20-23. The example of Kool-Aid is revealing: when Philip Morris acquires General Foods in 1985, and with it the sugary drink brand Kool-Aid, the company decides to rely on the existing Kool-Aid Man character to launch a massive marketing campaign targeting children. It notably creates a loyalty program in which children collect points that can be exchanged for branded gifts. This mechanism is directly inspired by the Marlboro program, which allowed smokers to accumulate points to obtain clothing or accessories featuring the brand. A company executive states the following year: “We decided to focus our marketing on children, where we know our strength is greatest”²⁴.

The objective is no longer simply to feed or save time, but to design products that are highly attractive, low-cost, and frequently consumed. Television becomes a central lever, particularly among children. As more than 95% of American households are now equipped with it, food advertisements flood children’s programming. Cereals, sugary drinks, and snacks are staged using endearing mascots and catchy jingles, in order to capture the attention of younger audiences and anchor consumption habits from a very early age²⁶.

Faced with these practices, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States attempts in 1978 to restrict television advertising aimed at young children. But under pressure from industry, Congress threatens to reduce the FTC’s budget, forcing it to abandon this initiative²⁷.

Advertising is not their only lever to impose these new products. From this period onward, the industry also seeks to act directly on what triggers desire. Specialists in sensory perception and neuroscience are mobilized to understand what makes a food desirable, and to adjust recipes and textures with unprecedented precision. Ultra-processed foods are no longer only practical and inexpensive: they become products scientifically optimized to maximize consumption… and therefore sales²⁸.