# 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: 2026-11-01

## 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:

| Component | Weight | Scale |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Nutri-Score | 60% | Grade A 100, B 75, C 50, D 25, E 0. |
| NOVA group | 30% | Group 1 100, 2 75, 3 50, 4 0. |
| Organic | 10% | 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?

| Source | What it provides |
| --- | --- |
| Open Food Facts | Ingredient, nutrition and additive data. Licensed ODbL. |
| Nutri-Score | The A-E grade, computed by the Nutri-Score algorithm. |
| NOVA | The food-processing group, from Monteiro et al. |
| EFSA re-evaluations | Curated 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](https://world.openfoodfacts.org/)

[AESAN — Nutri-Score in Spain](https://www.aesan.gob.es/AECOSAN/web/nutricion/detalle/nutri_score.htm)

[Monteiro et al. — NOVA food classification (2019)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30744710/)

[EFSA — food additives](https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/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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Source: https://cuadra-staging.murabi.io/en/score-method