Scores - Frequently Asked Questions

The human health score does not indicate that a product is healthy to eat, but it shows how making it might affect people's health. For example, the processes used to produce it could release chemicals into the air, water or land that cause breathing (respiratory) problems. Even if eating a product is not good for your health, it could still get a high Human Health score if it is made in a way that does not cause these problems. 

Plant-based meat alternatives like veggie burgers or tofu get better ratings for sustainability, from A to D, compared to for example red meat, which usually is a G. This is because producing red meat involves using a lot of land for animals to graze and grow feed, which can lead to habitat loss and cutting down forests. Also, animals like cows release gases that harm the environment, like methane. 

Several cow’s milk options typically have a score of B, similar to dairy-free alternatives that are usually rated A or B. The reason cow's milk is not as bad for the environment as beef, which is rated G, is because of the quantity produced. Cows produce much more milk compared to the amount of beef they produce. Therefore, the environmental impact per kilogram of milk is lower than the impact per kilogram of beef, due to the large difference in the quantities of milk versus beef produced, which affects how the impact is calculated. 

The various types of eggs like organic, free-range, and conventional do have different scores for their environmental impact, but the differences between them are small. These differences are not big enough to give them different grades/ratings.  

Mussels are generally more sustainable (eco-friendly) compared with many other types of seafood. One reason is that they do not need to be fed with fishmeal or other types of feed, making them eco-friendly.

A lot of the fish we eat comes from fish farms that are close to the shore and are fed with fish feed that can contain ingredients such as corn and soy similar to other livestock Also, many fish products, like breaded fish, have other ingredients like flour, starch, and vegetable oils. These ingredients also come from farmed land.  

Avocados use a lot of water to grow, which makes them less friendly to the environment compared to other fruits and vegetables. 

Generally, transport (unless done by aeroplane) contributes only a rather small fraction to our food’s environmental impact and sometimes, good growing conditions can balance out the transportation impact (for example, growing raspberries outdoors in natural conditions in a warm country may be better than in artificially warmed conditions in a cold country). Therefore, we currently do not consider the origin of the ingredients in this tool and use averages instead.   

Packaging does not have a huge impact on the environment compared to other factors and is generally not enough to make a big difference. Therefore, our tool assumes average packaging per ingredient.  

Growing nuts, whether through organic or regular methods, requires a large amount of water, making them less friendly to the environment.  

Just because a product is produced under an organic system, does not always mean it has a lower environmental impact per produced mass of that item. For instance, organic farming may require a lot of land and water, much like regular (conventional) farming does. Fairtrade is a measure of social fairness, and it is not part of this measure of environmental impact. 

Even though fizzy drinks have sugar in them, most of what you are drinking is water. Eco-label scores measure how products affect the environment, but not about the health effects. 

Sometimes products that look very similar may use very different ingredients. For example, some demerara sugar is made from unrefined natural cane sugar, which includes the molasses of the sugar cane that gives it its light brown colour. Other demerara sugar is made from beet sugar, with some cane molasses added for colour and flavour. The production of sugar beets emits much less carbon dioxide than the production of sugar cane, resulting in very different sustainability scores for the two versions of demerara sugar. 

This should not happen, and we are doing what we can to avoid this. Sometimes we do not have all the information about the ingredients of some products or new information becomes available that means that the eco-label changes. Please report the problem by (clicking the report button) and we will look into it as soon as possible. It usually takes about a week to fix a problem with a particular product.  

If you think there has still been a mistake, please let us know by clicking on the 'Unexpected Grade? Report it now' button.