Abstract
Food processing has many benefits to accommodate modern lifestyles. How food processing is understood by public health nutritionists and registered dietitian nutritionists has important implications for translating and communicating food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) to promote safe, healthy, and sustainable eating patterns. Using a classification system, such as a typology or taxonomy, can help practitioners understand food processing within the broader context of national FBDGs in modern food systems. This article explores how food processing fits into traditional, evolving, and modern diets and food systems. It also examines how food processing is described by different food typologies and taxonomies for new product development, marketing, and research; monitoring food safety standards; and enforcing international trade policies. It examines how food typologies are used to organize national dietary guidelines translated into pictorial FBDGs to communicate healthy and sustainable eating messages to the public. The article concludes with policy, practice, and research implications to enable public health nutritionists and registered dietitian nutritionists to translate the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 into FBDGs to educate consumers about choices that can support safe, healthy, and sustainable diets and food systems.