Abstract This study provides a structural survey and a comparative critical evaluation of 100 peer-reviewed academic studies (2000–2026) that monitored shifts in nutritional behavior and marketing investment within the processed food sector across the Arab market, with a specific focus on the historical fracture caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the structure of consumer health consciousness. Utilizing a content analysis matrix, the systematic synthesis reveals that 51% of high-intensity marketing campaigns—designed to establish visual dominance and marginalize public health critiques—were strategically directed toward the "critically acute product triangle": beverages (25%), dairy (13%), and fast/frozen foods (13%). Furthermore, corporations demonstrated a high capacity for cognitive positioning and "compensatory marketing"—leveraging alternative positive attributes to overshadow the manufacturing flaws of ultra-processed foods (UPFs)—by deploying a matrix of five core values: "zero-calorie/fitness" (25%), "immunological enhancement/fortification" (21%), "organic/pure plant-based" (17%), "cardiovascular health/prevention" (16%), and "heritage/emotional attachment" (11%). The study documents sharp cross-market disparities: high-income markets (e.g., the Gulf region) were dominated by elite digital marketing and influencer endorsements, with endorsements exceeding 60% to promote purity and zero-calorie claims, thereby masking uncertainties surrounding UPFs. Conversely, mass media and economic-emotional compensation via downsized packaging and traditional family-cooking values captured 40% of the market share in middle- and low-income countries (e.g., Egypt and the Levant) to accommodate constrained purchasing power. Regarding health literacy, the pandemic catalyzed a paradigm shift; the pre-COVID era was characterized by "reactive therapeutic awareness," which corporations easily disrupted through economic compensation, leaving only 12% of consumers scrutinizing nutritional labels—whereas the post-COVID era surged toward "proactive preventive awareness," with health scrutiny and biosecurity tracking exceeding 65%. This shift forced corporations to reallocate 60% of their marketing budgets to hyper-targeted digital channels (social media 38%, delivery applications 22%) and smart packaging technologies (QR codes 8%) to engineer artificial consumer reassurance. The innovative value of this paper lies in conceptualizing the "nutritional paradigm conflict" by benchmarking this complex commodity system against contemporary bio-nutritional theories advocating a 100% elimination of processed goods. The study recommends institutionalizing regulatory oversight over food bloggers' digital health misinformation, mandating technological transparency tokens (such as QR codes), and re-engineering corporate social responsibility (CSR) from manufactured reassurance to actual food and health security.
MOHAMEDAHMED et al. (Sat,) studied this question.