An analysis of over 50,000 food products has revealed dramatic differences in the availability of minimally processed foods across America’s major grocery chains, with some stores offering few alternatives to ultra-processed options in popular food categories.

The research, published January 13 in Nature Food, provides unprecedented insight into the processed food landscape across Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods, using advanced machine learning to score products based on their degree of processing.

“There are a lot of mixed messages about what a person should eat. Our work aims to create a sort of translator to help people look at food information in a more digestible way,” said Giulia Menichetti, PhD, lead researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Channing Division of Network Medicine.