Association between ultra-processed food consumption and pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review

Consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) has been linked to the development and progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), however there is still not much proof in children. The current research on UPF consumption and IBD-related outcomes in paediatric population was collected in this review. This systematic review was registered with PROSPERO and complied with PRISMA 2020 requirements. We searched article in PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Google scholar from the beginning to 31/07/2026. The tool Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used by two reviewers to independently screen documents, extract data, and evaluate risk of bias. The results were narratively summarised in accordance with Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guidelines due to the variability in exposure and outcome measurements. Three investigations ( n = 114 paediatric patients with IBD) from a total of 512 records met the inclusion criteria. A cross-sectional investigation involving paediatric ulcerative colitis ( n = 47) indicated that increased consumption of UPF correlated with diminished probabilities of clinical remission and mucosal healing. A case–control investigation indicated that children with IBD had a greater consumption of UPF compared to healthy controls; however, this disparity showed no significance after oral nutritional supplements (categorised as UPF) were omitted, and UPF intake showed no correlation with disease activity. A preliminary cohort study ( n = 20) revealed no notable disparity in UPF consumption based on household food security. The potential for bias was moderate across all three investigations (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale scores ranging from 4 to 6 out of 9), primarily due to insufficient control of confounding variables. The evidence is limited (three diverse studies with moderate bias risk), thus no definitive conclusions can be made on the link between UPF intake and paediatric IBD; the conclusions drawn are only suggestive. Before UPF-restriction recommendations can be made, larger multicenter prospective trails are required.