> Pardon, but where's the ultra processing? Isn't pea protein just dried peas in a blender?
Obviously not. Protein meal contains 20 to 25% protein, while pea protein concentrates/isolates have more than 80% protein. For more information on the process required to reach such high levels of protein, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_protein
> I figured ultra processed was reserved for things like ascorbic acid, pectin, and xanthan gum.
You could have chosen better examples. All those three things are naturally occurring in non-processed foods, two of them are not even digestible by humans (both pectin and xanthan gum are technically "soluble fiber"), and the other one is a water-soluble vitamin (i.e., good luck overdosing or suffering from chronic exposure from that).
Yes, pretty much. They're made by a process called fractionation which is basically a mill (a blender if you like) and then clever air classification and centrifuge so that the constituent parts get separated by weight.
Yup, for pea protein concentrates obtained by dry fractionation (arguably a slighly more complicated processing process than "just dried peas in a blender").
Smashing, not grinding. Not nearly as fine. Also, chemistry of food is very complicated... even if we stipulate that it's getting basically powder-ized in either case, if there's head involved in the process at any point it will behave very differently if it's pulverized before or after. (Think grinding flour vs chewing bread). I'll admit I'm now curious if plain, normal flour meets the definition of 'ultra processed'.
(Not sure if it would qualify as ultra processed though.)