How BannedPantry rates ingredients

The scoring scale

Each flagged ingredient is graded low, medium, or highby how strong the regulatory action against it is — an outright ban counts for more than a warning-label requirement. The product's score is then the worst combination of its flags:

Primary regulatory sources

• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) \u2014 efsa.europa.eu \u2014 scientific opinions on food additives.
• FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) \u2014 fda.gov/food \u2014 CFR Title 21, GRAS lists.
• Health Canada \u2014 canada.ca \u2014 List of Permitted Food Additives.
• Japan MHLW \u2014 Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare positive list for food additives.
• IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) \u2014 monographs.iarc.who.int \u2014 carcinogenicity classifications (Group 1, 2A, 2B).
• California Prop 65 \u2014 p65warnings.ca.gov \u2014 state-level warning requirements.

Product data sources

• Open Food Facts \u2014 openfoodfacts.org \u2014 open-source product label database (CC-BY-SA).
• User barcode scans \u2014 verified labels submitted via the BannedPantry scanner.
• OCR analysis \u2014 GPT-4o vision parses ingredient lists from uploaded label photos.

Update cadence

• Regulatory rulings reviewed monthly.
• Product label data refreshed daily from Open Food Facts.
• State-level legislation tracked within 7 days of bill signing.
• Every flag is timestamped and cites its primary source.

Editorial independence

BannedPantry does not accept brand sponsorships, paid placements, or pay-for-rating agreements. Our only revenue is consumer subscriptions and Amazon Associates referrals on safe-swap recommendations \u2014 and brands cannot pay to be listed as a safe swap. Editorial decisions are independent from any commercial relationship.

Guides are also read by real parents before they ship: our Parent Panel reviews every guide for clarity and everyday usefulness. Scientific accuracy stays anchored to the primary regulatory sources cited on each page.

Corrections and feedback

Found a mistake in our data? Email [email protected]. We respond to corrections within 48 hours and post a public changelog of material updates.