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How Cuadra scores a product

A 0–100 score per product, from three weighted inputs and an additive penalty. Version 0.1, published before launch.

Last reviewed

What is the score?

A 0–100 number for one product in the catalog. Higher is better. It is used twice: to choose between similar products when building the basket, and to score a whole dish, which is the quantity-weighted mean of its non-pantry products.

How is it calculated?

Three weighted components, minus the additive penalty, clamped to 0–100, then capped:

ComponentWeightScale
Nutri-Score60%Grade A 100, B 75, C 50, D 25, E 0.
NOVA group30%Group 1 100, 2 75, 3 50, 4 0.
Organic10%100 when certified organic, 50 otherwise, so a non-organic product tops out at 95.

0.60 × Nutri-Score + 0.30 × NOVA + 0.10 × organic − 15 × high-risk additives − 3 × moderate-risk additives.

The result is clamped to 0–100. If any high-risk additive is present, the score is capped at 49.

What caps or limits a score?

  • A high-risk additive caps the product at 49, whatever the rest of the formula says.
  • A non-organic product tops out at 95, because the organic component adds 5 points.
  • Loose produce has no barcode: it takes a category default and is labelled estimated.
  • A processed product without a Nutri-Score stays unscored instead of borrowing a default.

Where do the inputs come from?

SourceWhat it provides
Open Food FactsIngredient, nutrition and additive data. Licensed ODbL.
Nutri-ScoreThe A-E grade, computed by the Nutri-Score algorithm.
NOVAThe food-processing group, from Monteiro et al.
EFSA re-evaluationsCurated high- and moderate-risk additive list, versioned with the catalog.

The additive risk list is curated from EFSA re-evaluations and versioned with the catalog snapshot, so every score can be traced back to the method and the data it used.

Open Food Facts — product data, licensed ODbL

AESAN — Nutri-Score in Spain

Monteiro et al. — NOVA food classification (2019)

EFSA — food additives

What the score is not

  • It scores a product, not a diet: a plan full of 80-point products can still miss nutrients.
  • It has no packaging data, so "glass jar" or plastic-free choices are not scored.
  • It does not judge brands, and it is not medical or nutritional advice.
  • It is not Yuka's method: Yuka weights additives differently, and Cuadra uses NOVA plus an additive penalty.
  • A processed product without a Nutri-Score stays unscored rather than borrowing a default.

Which version produced a score?

Method v0.1, reviewed 2026-11-01. Every score in the app shows the method version that produced it. No catalog is published yet, so no product carries a score today: this page is the specification, not a description of live results.

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