Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
September 2025

I am very pleased to announce that INMD, in collaboration with the CIHR Institutes of Aging, Cancer Research, Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Human Development, Child and Youth Health, Infection and Immunity, and Population and Public Health and in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, is launching a new funding opportunity to support Team Grants on the health effects of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs). This funding opportunity follows a Best Brains Exchange hosted by INMD in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Research and Health Canada’s Food and Nutrition Directorate entitled, Unpacking ultra-processed foods: Identifying research priorities.

UPFs continue to make headlines in Canada and many other countries. Most recently, the American Heart Association (AHA) released a Science Advisory on the association between UPFs and cardiometabolic health. This advisory underscores the need for more nuanced subcategorization and mechanistic understanding rather than blanket recommendations to restrict all UPFs. The AHA emphasized that further research is needed to clarify mechanisms linking UPFs to health outcomes, including the roles of food marketing, composition (nutritional and non-nutritional components such as texture, additives, and energy density), and metabolic processes (e.g., gastric emptying, gut microbiota).

Establishing mechanisms and causality is essential to determine whether UPFs exert health effects distinct from those captured by conventional diet quality metrics. They also note knowledge gaps in understanding the health effects of UPFs across sociodemographic groups and life stages, the independent and additive effects of ingredients and processing techniques, and improving methods for identifying UPFs in diets, especially for research purposes. One of the four concluding recommendations from this advisory focuses on increased research funding.

Also in the U.S., the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David Kessler, filed a citizen petition arguing that the agency has the authority to declare that certain sweeteners, refined flours and other additives are not “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). Removing that designation will require manufacturers to prove that their ingredients are not harmful, otherwise, they would need to remove their products from the market or reformulate recipes. The agency has 180 days to respond to the petition.

I would encourage you to read the funding opportunity for the Team Grants: Health Effects of Ultra-Processed Foods.

Dr. Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

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