Blending does not make food ultra-processed. What gets added does. A smoothie made at home from fruit, vegetables and plain yogurt is minimally processed. A bottled smoothie containing natural flavors, added isolated fiber or gums is ultra-processed. The blender is not the deciding factor, and neither is the bottle.
This trips people up because the two things arrive together in most shops. Almost everything blended that you can buy has also been formulated, and people reasonably conclude that blending is the problem. It is not.
What the classification actually says
The NOVA system is the definition used in nearly all peer-reviewed research on ultra-processed food. Its group 1, unprocessed or minimally processed foods, explicitly permits grinding, filtering, pasteurization, chilling, freezing and packing, because none of those add anything to the food.
Its published table of group 1 examples includes, word for word:
"fresh or pasteurized fruit or vegetable juices (with no added sugar, sweeteners or flavours)"
That sentence settles most arguments about blended drinks. If nothing was added, the classification does not treat it as processed food at all, no matter how it was packaged. You can check this yourself: it is on page 8 of a free FAO document, linked in the sources below.
How to tell in ten seconds
Read the ingredient list, not the front of the bottle. A blended product is ultra-processed if it contains even one of the following.
| Marker | How it usually appears on a smoothie label |
|---|---|
| Flavors | "Natural flavors," "natural fruit flavor" |
| Isolated fiber added back | Inulin, chicory root fiber, soluble corn fiber, oat fiber |
| Thickeners and stabilizers | Xanthan gum, gellan gum, guar gum, carrageenan, pectin added as an ingredient |
| Sweeteners | Stevia, monk fruit, erythritol, sucralose, cane sugar, agave |
| Concentrated sugars | Fruit juice concentrate, maltodextrin, dextrose, invert sugar |
| Protein isolates | Whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, pea protein isolate, collagen peptides |
| Colors | Any added color, including "vegetable juice for color" |
Common blended products, sorted
| Product | Typical classification | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Home smoothie: fruit, spinach, water | Group 1, minimally processed | Nothing added |
| Home smoothie with protein powder added | Group 4 | Protein isolate, usually plus flavors and sweeteners |
| Plain frozen fruit, blended | Group 1 | Freezing is a group 1 process |
| Bottled vegetable or fruit juice, nothing added | Group 1 | Named explicitly in the NOVA table |
| Bottled smoothie with natural flavors or gums | Group 4 | One cosmetic additive is enough |
| Greens powder mixed with water | Usually group 4 | See the label breakdown for that category |
| Plain unsweetened applesauce | Group 1 | Cooked and packed, nothing added |
| Baby food pouch, single ingredient | Group 1 | Nothing added |
| Meal replacement shake | Group 4 | Built from isolated substances by design |
The separate question: does blending change the food?
Yes, in ways worth knowing, and none of them are about processing classification.
Blending keeps the fiber. Juicing removes it. This is the single most useful distinction in the category and it is often blurred. A juicer separates liquid from pulp and discards the pulp, which is where most of the fiber was. A blender breaks the whole food down and keeps everything in the glass. Higher dietary fiber intake is associated with lower rates of several major diseases in the pooled trial and cohort evidence, so this difference is not trivial.
Blended food is faster to consume. Chewing takes time, and time affects how much you eat before you feel full. This is one of the leading explanations for why people ate about 500 calories a day more on an ultra-processed diet in the only controlled feeding trial run on the question, even with the diets matched for calories and fiber. It applies to soft, quickly consumed food generally, blended food included.
Whole is still the default worth aiming at. Federal guidance asks people to eat vegetables in their original form where they can. A blended vegetable is minimally processed, and it is not the same thing as a raw one. Both statements are true and neither cancels the other.
Where SaladPower sits
SaladPower is six whole organic ingredients, spinach, kale, carrot, broccoli, apple and lemon, with nothing added: no sweeteners, no flavors, no gums, no isolated fiber. Under the NOVA line quoted above, that is group 1. Each pouch contains 5 to 6 cups of vegetables, which is 2x the USDA daily recommended vegetable intake, in under 100 calories, with 5 g of fiber intact because it is blended rather than juiced.
Related reading: is SaladPower ultra-processed goes through our label against the full marker list. Is SaladPower a juice or a smoothie covers the format question. SaladPower vs. green juice covers what juicing removes. The best way to drink your vegetables covers how people actually use it. For the definitions, see what counts as ultra-processed food.
Frequently asked questions
Are homemade smoothies ultra-processed?
No, provided you blend whole ingredients and add nothing formulated. Fruit, vegetables, water, plain milk or plain yogurt are all minimally processed. Adding a flavored protein powder or a sweetener changes the answer.
Is bottled juice ultra-processed?
Not automatically. The NOVA table lists "fresh or pasteurized fruit or vegetable juices with no added sugar, sweeteners or flavours" as minimally processed. A juice drink with added sugar, flavors or concentrate is a different product and is ultra-processed.
Does pasteurization make a drink ultra-processed?
No. Pasteurization is named in the classification as a group 1 process, alongside freezing, drying, grinding and packing. These preserve food without adding anything to it.
Is blending worse than eating whole vegetables?
It is different rather than worse. Blending keeps the fiber that juicing removes, and blended food is quicker to consume than food you chew, which matters for fullness. Whole vegetables remain the sensible default, and a blended one is a real serving of vegetables rather than a substitute for the idea of one.
Are baby food pouches ultra-processed?
Single-ingredient purees with nothing added are minimally processed. Many pouches do add fruit juice concentrate, which is a group 4 marker, so the answer depends on the specific product's ingredient list.
Sources
- Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Lawrence M, Costa Louzada ML, Pereira Machado P. Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system. Rome: FAO; 2019. Full text (PDF). Group 1 definition and Table 1.
- Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Levy RB, et al. Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition. 2019;22(5):936-941. doi:10.1017/S1368980018003762
- Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, et al. Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain. Cell Metabolism. 2019;30(1):67-77.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.008
- Reynolds A, Mann J, Cummings J, et al. Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The Lancet. 2019;393(10170):434-445. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31809-9
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030. realfood.gov
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
