Every product you scan gets one score from 0 to 100, built from four lenses: nutrition, additives, processing level, and seed oils. A high-risk additive or a named seed oil caps the total, so a great nutrition panel can't hide a bad ingredient. Every weight behind the score is visible in the app's settings — nothing is a black box, and no brand can pay for a better number.
The four lenses
Nutrition
What the nutrition panel actually says about the product, scored rather than summarized — so a "high protein" badge on the front doesn't outweigh what's printed on the back.
Additives
Every E-number in the ingredient list is decoded into plain language with a risk level you can parse at arm's length: fine, limit, or avoid. A high-risk additive doesn't just lower the additives lens — it caps the whole score.
Processing (NOVA)
How processed the product is, on the NOVA scale — from group 1 (unprocessed or minimally processed) to group 4 (ultra-processed).
Seed oils
Industrial seed oils — sunflower, canola, and friends — are spotted right in the ingredient list. Like a high-risk additive, a named seed oil caps the total.
Why one bad ingredient can cap the score
Averages hide things. If the four lenses were simply averaged, a product could bury a harmful additive under an excellent nutrition panel and still look great. Scoutbite doesn't allow that trade: when a high-risk additive or a named seed oil shows up, it sets a ceiling on the final score no matter how strong the other lenses are. What the label won't tell you, the score does.
Where the data comes from
Every score traces back to Open Food Facts, the community-run database behind 3.5M+ products. Nothing is sponsored, there are zero paid placements, and no brand can buy a better score or ranking. If a product's information looks wrong, you can fix it on Open Food Facts and the correction flows back to everyone.
Making the score yours
The default weights are a sensible starting point, not a decree. Pick a preset, or — with Scoutbite Pro — weight nutrition, additives, processing, and seed oils yourself. Every score, every swap suggestion, and every category leaderboard recomputes through your lens. Pro also adds a personal avoid list for ingredients you always skip.
What the score is not
Scores are informational guidance built from third-party data — not medical, nutritional, or allergy advice. They can be incomplete or out of date for a specific product, so always read the physical label, especially for allergens. The Terms of Use spell this out in full.
Scoutbite is free to scan on iOS and Android — get the app and see a score for yourself.