Is tofu ultra-processed? Plain tofu — the firm white block in water — typically is not. Its entire recipe is soya beans, water and a coagulant such as nigari or calcium sulphate, made by a technique that predates industrial food by roughly two thousand years. Under the NOVA system that is a processed food, group 3, and nowhere near ultra-processed. The picture changes at the flavoured end of the shelf: smoked, marinated and breaded tofu products with flavourings or longer additive lists typically tip into NOVA 4. As ever, the label decides, not the category.
Tofu is worth a post of its own because it is where two common assumptions collide: that anything sold as a meat alternative must be heavily processed, and that a factory-made block cannot be a simple food. Both are wrong here, and the reasons say a lot about how NOVA actually works.
Is tofu ultra-processed? The short version
The NOVA classificationgroups foods by the extent and purpose of industrial processing, not by nutrients. Group 1 is unprocessed or minimally processed food. Group 2 is culinary ingredients like oil and salt. Group 3 is processed food — group 1 foods with group 2 ingredients added, usually to preserve them or make them ready to eat. Group 4 is ultra-processed food: industrial formulations built from derived substances and cosmetic additives.
Tofu spans two of those groups:
- Plain tofu:soya beans are group 1; the salt or mineral coagulant that sets the curd is a culinary ingredient. The finished block is a processed food — NOVA 3 — the same logic that puts traditional cheese in group 3 rather than group 4.
- Flavoured, smoked, marinated or breaded tofu: once flavourings, colours or a longer additive system enter the recipe, the product typically becomes NOVA 4. The curd is unchanged; the formulation around it is what moves the group.
How plain tofu is made — and why NOVA is relaxed about it
The method has barely changed since it emerged in China. Soak soya beans, grind them with water, strain the milk, heat it, then add a coagulant — traditionally nigari, the magnesium chloride left over from sea salt production, or calcium sulphate. The milk curdles, the curds are pressed into a block, and that is the entire product. Silken, firm and extra-firm tofu differ mainly in how much water is pressed out.
Nothing in that process is an ultra-processing marker. NOVA's group 4 is defined by cosmetic additives — flavourings, colours, non-sugar sweeteners, additive systems used to imitate or enhance sensory qualities — and by industrial ingredients rarely found in home kitchens, such as protein isolates or glucose-fructose syrup. A mineral coagulant used to set a curd is none of those things. It is doing the same structural job rennet does in cheese, and NOVA treats the two foods the same way. The fact that a factory pressed the block rather than a village kitchen does not matter to the framework; what went in does.
Worth acknowledging honestly: NOVA coders do not always agree on borderline foods, and tofu occasionally gets sorted differently depending on who is classifying. When over 150 experts scored the same foods in a 2022 study, agreement was only fair — a Fleiss kappa of roughly 0.32 to 0.34. But plain tofu is about as clean a group 3 case as the system offers: a whole food, water and a salt.
Flavoured, smoked and marinated tofu: where the label decides
UK supermarket shelves now carry far more than the plain block: smoked tofu, sesame-and-ginger pieces, crispy coated cubes, ready-marinated slices aimed at the meal deal and the midweek stir fry. These solve a real problem — plain tofu is bland until you season it — but the solutions are exactly the additions NOVA watches for.
A simple marinade of soy sauce, oil, spices and vinegar keeps the product in processed-food territory. A recipe listing “flavouring”, colours, or a coating built on starches and an additive system typically lands in NOVA 4. Smoked tofu splits the same way: genuinely beechwood-smoked blocks read like a group 3 food, while “smoke flavouring” is a cosmetic additive and a typical group 4 marker. One preservative or antioxidant on its own, for the record, is not — foods preserved that way stay in group 3 under NOVA's own rules.
We are deliberately not naming which products fall on which side, because recipes change and the same supermarket often stocks both kinds side by side. A plain block and the marinated pieces next to it can sit in different NOVA groups. Check the packet in your hand, not the shelf it came from.
Tofu versus plant-based meat: same aisle, different groups
This is the counter-intuitive part. Tofu and meat alternatives share a chiller cabinet and a customer, and plenty of shoppers assume they share a processing story too. They typically do not. As we covered in our post on plant-based meat, most burgers, sausages and mince alternatives are built on soya or pea protein isolates, binders, flavourings and colours — the textbook NOVA 4 construction. Tofu starts from the whole bean and stops after curdling. One is an industrial formulation designed to imitate meat; the other is a traditional food that happens to be useful in the same recipes.
None of this means plant-based meat is bad and tofu is virtuous — NOVA describes processing, not nutrition, and a fortified meat alternative can hold its own nutritionally. But if your goal is specifically to eat less ultra-processed food while keeping soya protein in the diet, swapping the isolate-based products for plain tofu is one of the cleaner trades available.
What to check on the label
Twenty seconds with the ingredient list settles it:
- Plain block: soya beans (or soya milk), water, and a coagulant listed as nigari, magnesium chloride, or calcium sulphate. That is about as clear a NOVA 3 case as the system offers.
- A simple marinade:soy sauce, oil, spices, vinegar, garlic — kitchen ingredients, still processed rather than ultra-processed.
- Flavourings, colours, or a coating system: “flavouring”, “smoke flavouring”, colours, or a batter built on starches and additives — these are the entries that typically make it NOVA 4.
- Protein isolates:if the first ingredient is soya protein isolate rather than soya beans, you are holding a meat alternative, not tofu — and typically a NOVA 4 one.
Or let the app do the reading: Cull's UPF scannershows the NOVA verdict on any scanned product, alongside its additives and an overall score — useful when the plain, smoked and marinated versions are stacked in the same chiller and the labels are on the back.
Does any of this make flavoured tofu unhealthy?
No — and the caveat matters. Ultra-processed and unhealthy are correlated, not synonymous. A marinated tofu that lands in NOVA 4 is still a soya food with protein, unsaturated fat and minerals; it is not in the same league as confectionery because a flavouring appears on the label. The large observational studies linking higher UPF intake to worse health outcomes are associations, not proof of cause, and almost none of that research concerns foods like tofu. The UK's advisory committee, SACN, reviewed the evidence in 2023 and urged caution rather than declaring ultra-processed food independently harmful.
The practical reading is modest. Plain tofu is one of the easiest non-UPF protein choices in the supermarket. If the marinated version is the one you will actually cook and eat, that trade is defensible too. Knowing which group the packet is in is information, not a verdict.
Sources
- FAO (2019) — Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system
- Monteiro et al. (2016) — NOVA. The star shines bright, World Nutrition
- Open Food Facts — NOVA groups for food processing
- Braesco et al. (2022) — Ultra-processed foods: how functional is the NOVA system? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
- SACN (2023) — Position statement on processed foods and health