How we score products

What goes into the score

• Nutrition — added sugar, saturated fat, sodium, fiber, and protein per serving.
• Processing — whole and minimally processed foods score higher than ultra-processed items.
• Ingredients — additives matched to our knowledge base; penalties scale with severity (avoid, limit, caution).
• Sourcing — organic, local, and similar label signals when present in the data.

Letter grades: A ≥ 75 · B ≥ 55 · C ≥ 35 · D below 35 on a 0–100 scale.

Ingredient concern penalties: avoid −15 · limit −8 · caution −4 points (see each product’s “Why this grade?” breakdown).

Who we cite for ingredient flags

When an ingredient is flagged, the detail names who said what — for example “EFSA concluded…”, “IARC classified…”, or “FDA revoked authorization…”. Where regulators disagree (such as glyphosate), we note both positions and link to the primary source.

• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority)
• U.S. FDA
• IARC / WHO
• U.S. NTP
• USDA
• California OEHHA
• Peer-reviewed studies

On each product, flagged ingredients list linked sources (authority, document title, year) so you can read the original assessment yourself.

What this is not

Consumer information only — not medical, nutritional, or legal advice. Always confirm allergens and nutrition on the package.

Product and nutrition data come from Open Food Facts and USDA FoodData Central. Crowdsourced entries can be incomplete — we show “Limited data” when a full grade would be misleading.

More detail

Engineers and contributors can read the full curated additive list in docs/ingredient-methodology.md in our repository. Questions? Contact support.