Unrefined plant raw materials are key to nutritious food.

Food processing often overlooks nature's complexity, favouring purified raw materials. This excessive purification fosters unsustainable practices and diminishes the taste and nutritional quality of food. Given the current global environmental and health crises, we propose three food innovation principles to embrace the complexity of plant raw materials: (1) leveraging the inherent chemical, physical, biological and nutritional potential of raw materials; (2) applying robust food processes that cope with raw material complexity; and (3) designing food products from field to colon. Adhering to these principles will allow the development of technologies that could transform raw materials into healthier, more sustainable food products.