Sources

Sources

Where the numbers on this site come from. Each statistic on erracertified.org is drawn from a government agency, a peer-reviewed study, or a national survey, listed here with a link to the original.

1. 01

   CDC National Center for Health Statistics.

   Ultra-processed Food Consumption in Youth and Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. Data Brief No. 536, August 2025.

   Ultra-processed foods supplied 55% of calories for Americans age 1 and older, 62% for children and teens ages 1–18, and 53% for adults.

   https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db536.htm
2. 02

   International Food Information Council.

   2025 Food & Health Survey: A Focus on Food & Ingredient Safety. July 2025.

   55% of Americans say they are very or somewhat confident in the safety of the U.S. food supply, the lowest since tracking began in 2012. The remaining 45% are not confident (41%) or unsure (4%).

   https://ific.org/media/confidence-in-food-safety-hits-record-low/
3. 03

   Gallup.

   U.S. Adults Rate Their Diet as Healthy, Worry About Food Safety. July 2025.

   53% of U.S. adults have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the federal government to ensure food safety, a record low.

   https://news.gallup.com/poll/693497/adults-rate-diet-healthy-worry-food-safety.aspx
4. 04

   U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

   Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025. December 2020, p. 5.

   “60 percent of adults have one or more diet-related chronic diseases.”

   https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf
5. 05

   Menichetti G, Ravandi B, Mozaffarian D, Barabási A-L.

   Machine learning prediction of the degree of food processing. Nature Communications 14:2312, 2023.

   “Over 73% of the US food supply is ultra-processed,” i.e. nearly 75%. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health summarizes the same finding as “nearly 75% of the U.S. food supply is estimated to be ultra-processed” (What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?, 2025).

   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37457-1

Last reviewed September 2026. Questions or corrections: info@erracertified.org