How far from the original source is the end result? If it's packaged and has a list of 1000 ingredients that you can't pronounce, it's probably heavily processed.
Yep. If preparing the food requires a bachelors degree in food science, chemicals imported from China, and a home laboratory, then it's probably classified as "processed food".
As a chinese person I'd like to push back against the idea of importing ingredients to be part of processed foods. My family is from a region with a very specific style of vinegar that we import for our home cooking.
I wrote "chemicals" from China. Not "ingredients" from China. Nothing against China. It's a placeholder for <insert random source of chemicals>