Our scoring philosophy
A single score sorts food into good and bad. Real food is rarely that simple, so we ask three separate questions and show you all three answers.
One number flattens the story
Most food ratings boil a product down to one number or one colour. It is quick to read, but it has to average very different things together: how nourishing a food is, how it is made, and how much sugar, salt and fat comes with it. A food that is excellent at one and poor at another lands somewhere in the middle, and you can't tell why.
That middle score is not neutral. It hides the one thing you might care about most. Someone short on protein, someone avoiding ultra-processed food and someone watching their blood pressure need different answers from the same pack.
Three questions, asked separately
- Nutrition density A to E
What does the food give you? Protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals per 100 g. - Ingredient integrity A to E
How is it made? How processed the ingredients are, which additives are used, and whether the front of the pack tells the truth. - Load risk 1 to 5
What comes with it? Free sugar, sodium, saturated and trans fat, and calories.
The three are never added into one number on the score itself. The details of each are on how we score.
Example: protein powders
A protein powder is about as processed as packaged food gets. The protein is separated from milk, peas or soy, then dried, and flavoured powders add sweeteners, gums and flavourings. So it usually scores in the lower half on ingredient integrity, and we think that is fair to say.
But it would be wrong to stop there. For someone who struggles to eat enough protein, a powder can be a genuinely useful way to close the gap. That shows up elsewhere: the page carries a “High protein” flag, and the load risk is usually low or moderate because there is little sugar. A single score would have to pick one story. Three scores tell both.
You may notice the plain whey sits mid-scale on nutrition density despite all that protein. Nutrition density rewards a broad mix of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals, so a food that is almost pure protein can't reach the top. Protein-focused readers should look at the protein figure and flag on the product page.
Example: chips
Nobody buys chips for nutrition, and the first score says so straight away: chips sit at D or E. If that were the only score, every pack would look the same. The other two scores are where packs actually differ.
- Ingredient integrity separates three plain ingredients from a long list of starches, maltodextrin and flavour enhancers.
- Load risk shows how much salt and saturated fat you take on, which a single good-or-bad score can't show at all.
All four would get a similar “unhealthy” label from a one-number system. With three scores you can see which is the cleanest chip and which carries the most salt, and choose accordingly.
When all three agree
Sometimes the answer really is simple, and the three scores say so together.
How to use the three scores
- Short on protein or fibre? Start with nutrition density, then the protein and fibre flags.
- Avoiding ultra-processed food? Read ingredient integrity first.
- Watching sugar, salt or weight? Read load risk, and the warning icons beside the score.
- Comparing two similar packs? Compare all three. The differences are usually in one of them.
Not perfect, and always improving
No scoring system captures everything about a food, and ours is no exception. Scores are built from the label a brand publishes, per 100 g, and they can't account for portion size, how often you eat something or your own health needs. We review the method as food science, regulation and the food industry change, and we update scores when we do.
Missing something you eat?
Tell us what you buy and we'll add it to the list to score. We read every request.