Objectives. To evaluate the extent and nature of food-industry relationships among authors who published academic work between 2009 and 2025 criticizing the Nova food classification system or promoting the benefits of ultraprocessed foods, building on evidence that some Nova critiques stem from industry-linked actors. Methods. This preregistered review (PROSPERO CRD42024539022) characterized each author's disclosed and nondisclosed (uncovered by public online source) food industry relationships. Results. Of 69 included articles, 91.3% involved at least 1 industry-affiliated author, 68.5% of 232 total authors had food industry ties, and 65.2% of articles were published in journals associated with nutrition societies with disclosed industry partnerships. Arguments defending or promoting ultraprocessed foods appeared in 39.7% of articles with direct industry ties and 60.0% with organizational or governmental industry ties, compared with 16.7% of articles with no identified ties. Conclusions. Given the tobacco industry's well-documented strategy of manufacturing academic doubt about its products' harms, these findings raise concern that the food industry may be following a similar playbook as evidence for the health risks of ultraprocessed foods continues to grow. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print September 17, 2026:e1-e10. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308691).
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 18. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 October 2026.
All research outputs
#2,654,409
of 34,634,910 outputs
Outputs from American Journal of Public Health
#3,748
of 14,223 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#17,187
of 310,392 outputs
Outputs of similar age from American Journal of Public Health
#6
of 43 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,634,910 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,223 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 310,392 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 43 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
