The hidden cost of ultra-processed foods on the environment: ‘The whole industry should pay’

<p>Industrially made foods involve several ingredients and processes to put together, making it difficult to examine their true cost</p><p>If you look at a package of M&amp;Ms, one of the most popular candies in the US, you’ll see some familiar ingredients: sugar, skimmed milk powder, cocoa butter. But you’ll see many more that aren’t so recognizable: gum arabic, dextrin, carnauba wax, soya lecithin and E100.</p><p>There are <a href="https://www.mms.com/en-nl/nutrition-information">34 ingredients</a> in M&amp;Ms, and, according to Mars, the company that produces the candy, at least 30 countries – from <a href="https://www.mars.com/about/policies-and-practices/cocoa-and-forests-policy">Ivory Coast</a> to <a href="https://www.fonterra.com/nz/en/our-stories/articles/on-farm-with-mars-strengthening-a-partnership-for-generations.html">New Zealand</a> – are involved in supplying them. Each has its own supply chain that transforms the raw materials into ingredients – cocoa into cocoa liquor, cane into sugar, petroleum into blue food dye.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/08/ultra-processed-foods-environment-impact">Continue reading...</a>