How BannedPantry rates ingredients

Updated June 2026 · No ads · No brand sponsorships · No affiliate-pay-for-rating

We rate every US food and beauty product against five regulatory databases \u2014 EFSA, FDA, Health Canada, Japan MHLW, and IARC. If an ingredient is banned, restricted, or warning-labeled in any one of those jurisdictions, it's flagged. We accept no money from brands. Every flag links to its primary regulatory source.

The scoring scale

Safe — No flagged ingredients on the label. Cleared by EFSA, FDA, Health Canada, and Japan MHLW.
Caution — Contains an ingredient that is restricted, warning-labeled, or under active safety review outside the US.
Avoid — Contains an ingredient that is fully banned in at least one of EU, UK, Canada, or Japan.

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.

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.

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How BannedPantry rates ingredients: methodology & sources (2026) | BannedPantry