Where do the additive ratings come from?

A curated, hand-reviewed database. Every flagged additive cites a real source, like the FDA, EFSA, IARC, or a published toxicology review, not an AI guess.

Which foods get an ingredients check?

Packaged foods with an ingredient list, usually from a barcode scan. A home-cooked photo has no label to read, so there's nothing to check.

How is the tier decided?

By the single riskiest additive. If anything lands in the highest-concern band the whole product reads Avoid; otherwise it steps down through Caution, Meh, and Clean.

Are these additives dangerous?

This isn't medical advice, and Bazu doesn't diagnose or treat anything. It surfaces what published evidence says, some additives are linked to concerns worth knowing, so you can decide for yourself.

Evidence-backed. Curated, not AI.

The junk doesn't get past us

Bazu reads the ingredient list and flags the additives worth avoiding, colors, sweeteners, preservatives, and more.

Every flag citedCurated, not AIA separate check

How it works

From the label to a verdict

Behind the Ingredients check is a whole pipeline. Here is the journey, step by step.

You scan a packaged food

Bazu pulls its ingredient list, from the barcode or a photo of the label.

Every ingredient is read

Bazu parses the full ingredient list, name by name, synonyms and E-numbers included.

Matched against our additive database

Each ingredient is checked against a curated, evidence-cited database of food additives.

Each additive gets a severity

Colors, preservatives, sweeteners, and more, rated from ok to avoid, backed by real sources.

The worst one sets the tier

The single riskiest additive decides the headline: Clean, Meh, Caution, or Avoid.

Shown as a separate check

It appears in the Ingredients panel, its rating kept apart from your Bazu Score.

The tiers

The four tiers

Every packaged food lands in one of four tiers, set by its riskiest additive. A separate read from the Bazu Score.

Clean

No additives of concern. Nothing worth flagging.

Meh

Only low-risk additives, worth a glance.

Caution

Moderate-risk additives you may want to limit.

Avoid

Has at least one additive to avoid.

What we check

What we flag

Bazu checks every class of additive on the label, and rates each one by how much concern the evidence shows.

OKLowModerateHigh

Synthetic dyes added for a brighter look. Several, including the Southampton dyes, are linked to attention and hyperactivity in some children, and Red 3 recently had its FDA authorization revoked.

The database

We've done the homework

From colors to sweeteners to emulsifiers, hundreds of additives, each graded against the evidence.

100+

additives reviewed

additive classes

severity tiers

100%

flags cited

Red 3Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6Blue 1Blue 2Green 3Citrus Red 2CarmineSucraloseAcesulfame KSaccharinSteviaErythritolXylitolSorbitolMaltitolCyclamateAspartameOlestraRed 3Red 40Yellow 5Yellow 6Blue 1Blue 2Green 3Citrus Red 2CarmineSucraloseAcesulfame KSaccharinSteviaErythritolXylitolSorbitolMaltitolCyclamateAspartameOlestra

NitritesSulfitesSodium benzoatePropyl gallateTBHQAzodicarbonamideMSGPhosphatesPolysorbate 80Mono- & diglyceridesCarboxymethylcelluloseXanthan gumGuar gumGellan gumLocust bean gumCarrageenanLecithinPectinCitric acidSodium citrateNitritesSulfitesSodium benzoatePropyl gallateTBHQAzodicarbonamideMSGPhosphatesPolysorbate 80Mono- & diglyceridesCarboxymethylcelluloseXanthan gumGuar gumGellan gumLocust bean gumCarrageenanLecithinPectinCitric acidSodium citrate

OKLowModerateHigh

Two axes

Two checks, one small overlap

The Bazu Score rates a food's nutrition. The ingredients check rates its additives. They stay separate, except for a few ingredients that do both.

Bazu Score

Nutrition

A few

do both

Ingredients

Additives

The overlap: artificial sweeteners, added phosphates, refined starches and maltitol, industrially refined fats, and isolated fibers. They're flagged as ingredients and also move the Bazu Score, because they change how a food behaves in ways the nutrition label can't show.

EVIDENCE
BACKED

Backed by evidence, not opinion

Every additive is graded against published regulators, cancer and toxicology reviews, and watchdog databases, curated by hand, not guessed by AI. Tap any source.

Regulators

US FDA EFSA (EU)WHO/FAO JECFA CA OEHHA (Prop 65)

Cancer & toxicology

IARC Monographs US NTP

Watchdogs & data

CSPI Chemical Cuisine EWG Food Scores Open Food Facts

Ratings are informational and reflect published evidence, not a determination that any product is unsafe. Not medical advice.

FAQ

Common questions

The additive rating is a separate axis and never changes the number on its own. Most additives, colors, preservatives, emulsifiers, are purely informational. A few ingredients do move the score, artificial sweeteners, added phosphates, refined starches and maltitol, industrially refined fats, and isolated fibers, but through the nutrition levers, not this rating.