Technology Review: The Environmental Working Group’s Food Scores
The following summary is extracted directly from the Environmental Working Group
website, which can be visited at http://www.ewg.org/foodscores.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has scored > 80 000 foods, 5 000 ingredients,
and 1 500 brands. The scores are based on:
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Ingredient concerns
Nutrition concerns
Processing concerns
For total scores, nutrition concerns are most heavily weighted, followed by ingredient
concerns, then processing concerns weighed relatively lightly. Each concern is also
scored separately.
The nutrition scoring algorithm is a modified version of a nutrition profiling system,
known as Ofcom, developed by Oxford University and the United Kingdom’s Food
Standard Agency, which is the United Kingdom’s counterpart of the United States Food
and Drug Administration (FDA). Ofcom uses six nutrients and the fruit, vegetable, or nut
content (% by weight) in 100 grams (g) of food to create a single score. Negative factors
such as calories, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium are counterbalanced by positive
factors such as protein, fiber, and the content of minimally processed fruit, vegetables,
and nuts. Each negative factor contributes 0-10 points and each positive factor
contributes 0-5 points. The positive sum is subtracted from the negative sum. The total
score varies between -15 for the most healthful food to +40 for the least healthful. The
EWG made adjustments to the Ofcom for trans fats, added vs. natural sugars, low
calorie sweeteners, added fibers with limited data on health benefits, and omega-3 fatty
acids. The Ofcom has been used in the United Kingdom since 2007 to set a bar for
limiting the advertising of unhealthful foods to children.
The ingredient concerns include:
 Concerns about food additives listed in the FDA’s priority-based assessment of
food additives (PAFA) database. Food additives are added for a variety of reasons
including preservatives, emulsifiers, dough conditioners, coloring, and
sweeteners.
 Contaminants, including:
o Mercury in seafood
o Bisphenol A in canned goods
o Arsenic in rice
o Pesticide residue levels on fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables
o Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in fatty meats, dairy, and seafood
 Concerns about how the food was produced:
o Antibiotics fed to conventionally raised meat and dairy animals
o Hormone and non-hormone growth promoters administered to
conventionally raised animals for meat and recombinant bovine growth
hormone (rBGH) injections in dairy animals
Whether a processed food is certified organic or conventional is also taken into account,
but the adjustments are made at the end of the scoring process and do not affect the
ingredient concern score specifically.
It is important to note that the substance score for ingredients and contaminants
reflects the concern for these compounds on their own and not necessarily for concern
about their presence in food. For instance, arsenic scores a 10 because it is a known
human carcinogen and causes other health effects, including cardiovascular damage.
However, its score as a food contaminant ranges from 2.5 to 5, depending on the
amount of arsenic in the food.
The substance score is adjusted by food weighting factors to account for the level of
concern for the substance in food. Consideration is given to the concentrations
measured in food and the evidence linking ingestion of the substance in food to human
health effects or environmental concerns. If the ingredient or contaminant in food is of
lesser concern, the substance score is reduced more, while more pressing concerns are
reduced less. Remember, the lower a score, the better.
The EWG’s substance scoring system assigns a level of concern for each identified health
effect based on the authority of the data source and the severity of the health effect.
The substance score for each additive is then adjusted by its Acceptable Daily Intake
(ADI) value. These are a government agency’s estimates of the amount that could be
ingested daily over the long-term without appreciable risks; this is expressed on a bodyweight basis. If there is no ADI value, the EWG calculates surrogate ADI by using the noobservable-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) from available data.
If the health effect linked to an additive is reported in a high-dose animal study, the
EWG reduces how much that study affects the additive’s substance score.
Ingredient concerns for food additives range from 0-9. Methyl mercury contamination
has a substance score of 10, because there is clear evidence of negative impact on
health with consumption. Bisphenol A (BPA) has a substance score of 8.8 secondary to
clear evidence of endocrine disruption in animals at low doses and the potential for
serious adverse effect. A single food weighting factor of 0.75 for BPA is assigned to all
canned food unless they are able to confirm that it is BPA free. Secondary to a strong
body of evidence demonstrating a relationship to cancer, developmental toxicity,
neurotoxicity, cardiovascular disease, skin lesions, abnormal glucose metabolism, and
diabetes in people and animals, arsenic has a substance score of 10. The arsenic score is
applied to rice and rice-based products. A score of 10 for pesticides accounts for human
health and environmental impacts. It is based on:
1. The EWG’s dirty dozen, which uses a pesticide food weighting score of 0.3
2. The EWG’s clean fifteen, which carries a food weighting score of 0.2
3. Certified organic food, which carries the lowest score and has a “no concern
identified” label above the ingredient concern dial
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) include dioxins, furans, and other common
contaminants found in some meat, seafood, and dairy products. The substance concern
for POPs is a 10 due to the links between dioxins and furans with cancer,
immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and other illnesses. The POP score for farmed
salmon, trout, catfish, herring, and bluefish is 0.2, because POPs are of lesser concern
than mercury. For dairy and meat, the substance score is based on fat percentage. If fat
is > 50%, the POP food weighting score is 0.2. If the fat percentage is between 15 and
49, the POP score is 0.1. There is no concern if the fat percentage is < 15.
The conventional production of meat, dairy, and eggs often uses antibiotics and growth
promoters like hormones. Different animal products carry various production concerns.
For example, hormones are not a concern in chicken and pork because the USDA does
not allow their use in these animals. Growth promoters, like Ractopamine are not fed to
poultry, but may be given to other animals. The highest score, a score of 10, is assigned
to beef, because sub-therapeutic antibiotic use is rampant and both hormone implants
and beta-agonists are commonly used as hormones and other growth promoters in the
cattle industry. Pork also carries a score of 10 secondary to antibiotic and beta-agonist
use. Turkey carries a score of 10 because of antibiotics and the possibilities of beta
agonists and arsenic based treatments being used as hormones and other growth
promoters.
Processing concerns are calculated based on:
1. The processing steps typically used to manufacture the ingredients
2. The origin of ingredients (artificial vs natural)
3. The sum of processes likely used to manufacture the product
The scores are weighted by the extent the production is likely to alter a food’s nature or
nutritional content. The scores are then combined to determine the overall processing
score. The score of individual ingredients can range from 0.2-5. All synthetic chemicals
are assigned a maximum processing score of 5. For all ingredients other than synthetic
industrial chemicals and flavors, a score is based on the process used to prepare an
ingredient, as well as the source of the ingredient. Specialized baseline scores are
assigned to:
 Non artificial sweeteners – carry a score of 3
 Chemically extracted vitamins and minerals – carry a score of 3
 Spices – carry a score of 0.7
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Herbs – carry a score of 0.5
Ingredient scores are combined based on the listed order of ingredients (from highest
concentration by weight to lowest concentration by weight) on the nutrition facts label.
The combined ingredient scores are added to the product level score to obtain an
overall processing score. If multiple ingredients in one food product are processed in the
same manner, the ingredients are grouped and the processing method is only
accounted for once to avoid inflation of the combined ingredient score.
An average of ingredient scores is used for dairy other than from cows, fruits and
vegetables (powders, concentrates, purees and sauces, freeze-dried, and whole), and
juice concentrated.
The highest scoring ingredient is used for dairy from cows, flavors (both artificial and
natural), grains, herbs and spices, juice, juice concentrate used as an added sugar, meat,
seafood, vitamins, and minerals.
Processed weight categories range from 0 for a food being washed to 10 for extremely
heated, chemically synthesized, hydrolyzed, hydrogenated, chemically extracted,
bleached, added preservatives, and other chemical reactions.
Examples of the score:
1. Think Thin® Portion Control Snack, Dark Chocolate
a. Overall score of 6.0
b. Nutrition concern score of 5.0
c. Ingredient concern score of 4.0
d. Moderate processing score
e. Concerns include:
i. Not certified organic
ii. Contains food additives of lower concern
iii. Ingredients may contribute a small amount of trans fat
iv. Added sugar
v. Rice-based, may contain arsenic
vi. Ingredients derived from animals possibly given antibiotics and
growth promoters
vii. Moderate processing concerns
f. Pluses of the food
i. High in protein per gram
2. SunButter® Sunflower Spread (creamy)
a. Overall score of 5.0
b. Nutrition concern score of 4.0
c. Ingredient concern score of 1.0
d. Low processing score
e. Concerns include:
i. Not certified organic
ii. Ingredients may contribute a small amount of trans fat
iii. Added sugar
f. Pluses of the food
i. High in protein per gram
ii. High in natural fiber per gram
iii. Low processing
3. Cracker Barrel, Sharp White Cheddar Cuts
a. Overall score of 7.0
b. Nutrition score of 5.0
c. Ingredient score of 5.0
d. Low processing score
e. Concerns include
i. Not certified organic
ii. Antibiotics likely used in the production of dairy ingredients
iii. Hormones may have been used in the production of dairy
ingredients
iv. Likely contaminated with dioxin and other POPs
v. Saturated fat
f. Pluses of the food
i. Does not contain artificial/industrial ingredients
ii. Excellent source of naturally occurring calcium
iii. High in protein per gram
iv. No processing concerns
The system allows an individual to look up a product, search by company, search by
category, and find better alternatives. An individualized experience can be created by:
 Viewing top findings for a given product
 Using a dynamic function in the nutrition facts label to personalize a product’s
percentage of daily values based on age, gender, and life stage
 Limiting search results by category with a drop-down menu
 Limiting search results by certifications such as organic or gluten free
 Changing the layout of the search results page by clicking the icons next to views
 Changing the number of items that show up on a search page
Contributed by Elaine Hinzey, RDN, LD/N
Review date: 9/7/15