How the food score is calculated

Every food score blends three parts. The weights are fixed and published, so you can always see why a product lands where it does.

The three parts

• Nutritional quality — 60%. Based on the Nutri-Score algorithm: calories, sugars, saturated fat and salt count against the product; fiber, protein, and fruit, vegetables and legumes count for it.
• Additives — 30%. Each additive has a risk level: none, limited, moderate or high. This part starts at 100 and loses more points the riskier the additives are.
• Organic — 10%. Products labeled organic earn this share in full.

The high-risk cap

If a food contains an additive rated high risk, its overall score can't go above 49 — it stays in the Poor band or below, however good its nutrition. That's why two versions of the same product, with and without a particular preservative, can land in different bands.

Special cases

• Drinks, including milk and plant-based drinks, are judged against their own Nutri-Score table.
• Fats, oils, nuts and seeds have their own table too.
• Plain water has its own rule.
• If key nutrition values are missing, the product isn't scored rather than scored unfairly.