A NOVA tracker app that shows how processed your food is

NOVA is a classification developed by nutrition researchers at the University of São Paulo and used by the UN’s FAO and by Open Food Facts. It sorts food by the type and purpose of its processing, not by calories or macros. Group 1 is unprocessed or minimally processed food — vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk, plain yogurt, rice, oats. Group 2 is processed culinary ingredients you cook with — oil, butter, sugar, salt. Group 3 is processed food, usually a group-1 food plus salt, sugar or oil — cheese, bread with few ingredients, canned vegetables, cured ham.

Group 4 is ultra-processed: industrially formulated products with several processing steps and often additives, flavourings, emulsifiers or sweeteners — soft drinks, crisps, sweets, most ready meals, and many protein bars and shakes. That last point is the one most trackers hide: a bar with 20 g of protein on the label is still a NOVA 4 product. Calories and protein don't tell you that. NOVA does.

You log food by name, in English or German — Swiss-German names like Gipfeli, Guetzli or Cervelat included. From the name, the app estimates a NOVA group and marks it as an estimate, with a reminder to check the ingredient list. Scan a barcode instead and the group comes straight from Open Food Facts' own classification, alongside the verified macros.

When the name doesn't say enough — a food the app doesn't recognise, or a mixed dish like a curry, a salad or a sandwich, where homemade and takeaway sit in different groups — it shows no group at all rather than a plausible-but-wrong one. A wrong NOVA label reads as nutrition advice, so the app only badges what it can place with confidence.

Each NOVA chip opens a short explanation: what the group means, typical examples, and why this food landed there. It's built to be read in the ten seconds between logging lunch and getting on with your day, not to send you to a research paper — though the full explainer on ultra-processed foods is one tap further if you want it.

NOVA 4 is not automatically unhealthy, and the app never pretends it is. A protein shake after a hard session is ultra-processed and still a sensible way to top up protein; a wholegrain loaf with a long ingredient list can be group 4 and still be the best thing on your plate that day. What matters is amount, frequency and what the rest of your diet looks like — so the chip is information, not a scolding.

The judgement lives one level up: your daily Coach Verdict weighs calories, protein, food quality, fuel timing and fibre into one score out of 100 and gives you one prioritised thing to do. Ultra-processed food shows up there as part of the picture, never as a red mark on its own.

Today's log is where you see the chip first, but the nutrition history keeps every entry from the last 90 days grouped by day, each with its NOVA group. That's where the pattern becomes visible on its own — weekday lunches that are all group 4 while weekends aren't, or the snack that sneaks in every evening. You don't get a lecture about it; you get to see it.

Most NOVA apps stop at the label. GetMyCoach is a nutrition coach first: it sets a daily calorie and protein target from your goal and, if you train with a plan, from the training you actually have that day; it tells you what to eat next with two or three concrete meals; and it scores each day. The NOVA group sits right next to the macros of every food, so you don't run one app for processing and another for protein.

It works on the web and in the Android app, in English and German, and both read the same log — scan at the supermarket on your phone, review the week on your laptop.

You don't have to be training to use it. Pick a goal — lose weight, maintain, build — add your body basics, and start logging. If you start training with one of our coaches later, your targets get training-aware automatically; the NOVA tracking works the same either way.