Sláinte Score Methodology

How Sláinte turns product information into a score.

The Sláinte Score summarises product information in a way that is easy to understand and compare. The methodology is always published so you can see what the score is built on.

Sláinte scores information traceable to the label, applies category specific logic, weighs multiple factors rather than one nutrient, explains every result, and avoids implying more precision than the data supports.

Illustration of a score dial with bar chart shapes and an apple

The principles

Use product information

Sláinte scores information that can be traced to the product label or another clearly identified data source.

Compare appropriate products

A protein bar and a breakfast cereal do not serve the same role, so category specific logic matters.

Consider multiple factors

The score is not driven by a single nutrient. Protein, fibre, sugar, saturated fat, salt, energy and ingredient characteristics all contribute.

Explain the result

Every score is accompanied by a human readable explanation of why the product scored the way it did.

Avoid false precision

A score of 81 versus 82 can imply more precision than the data supports, so small differences are not presented as meaningful.

Publish the weighting

The exact weighting is published on this page once the methodology is final.

Methodology in the open

We don't hide the formula. Our scoring combines nutritional quality, ingredient risk, processing indicators, and category-specific guardrails. If you think we've got something wrong, we want to know.

How we score, and why

Three parts, published shares

Nutrition 55%, ingredients 30%, processing 15%.

Four bands, fixed cutoffs

The same four colours and cutoffs everywhere in Sláinte, never tuned per product.

Nutrition from the label

The 2023 nutrient profiling model, using the figures printed on the pack.

Rules that override the maths

Caps and floors that stop a category gaming the calculation.

What the score is made of

Every food score out of 100 is built from three parts. These are the exact shares the app uses.

Nutrition quality

55%

Ingredients

30%

Processing and quality signals

15%

Part	Share	What it measures	Why it carries this weight
Nutrition quality	55%	Energy, sugars, saturated fat and salt, set against fibre, protein and fruit, vegetable and pulse content.	It is the part of a product that is actually measured and printed on the pack, so it compares fairly across every brand.
Ingredients	30%	Additives, artificial sweeteners, how long the ingredient list is and whether any ingredient is a known concern.	Two products with the same nutrition figures are not equal if one of them is mostly additives.
Processing and quality signals	15%	Degree of processing, whether fibre and protein are present at all, and organic certification.	A supporting signal that nudges the result, never a verdict on its own.

The four bands

The final number falls into one of four bands. The cutoffs never move.

Band	Score	What we say	What it means
Excellent	75 to 100	Good for you.	A strong overall profile according to the Sláinte methodology.
Good	50 to 74	Mostly good for you.	A generally favourable profile, with some characteristics worth understanding.
Poor	25 to 49	Best kept occasional.	A weak profile. Several characteristics pull the score down.
Bad	0 to 24	Avoid.	A poor profile according to the Sláinte methodology.

The nutrition part in detail

The nutrition part uses the 2023 nutrient profiling model behind Nutri-Score. Points are added for the things worth limiting, taken away for the things worth having, and the total is then mapped onto a 0 to 100 scale. Drinks, fats and oils and cheese each use their own thresholds.

Counts against the score

Salt

up to 34 points

Sláinte extends the scale past 4 g per 100 g

Sugars

up to 15 points

Lower thresholds again for drinks

Energy

up to 10 points

Kilojoules per 100 g or 100 ml

Saturated fat

up to 10 points

Measured as a share of total fat for oils

Counts for the score

Protein

up to 7 points

Not counted when negatives are already high, cheese aside

Fibre

up to 5 points

Rewarded from 3 g per 100 g upwards

Fruit, vegetables and pulses

up to 5 points

Up to 6 for drinks

Term	What it means here
Negative points	Points from energy, sugars, saturated fat and salt per 100 g or 100 ml. More points is worse.
Positive points	Points from fibre, protein and fruit, vegetable and pulse content, subtracted from the negative total.
The protein rule	Protein points are not counted once a product is already high in negatives, so a salty, fatty product cannot buy its way back with protein. Cheese is the exception.
The salt extension	The published salt scale stops at 4 g per 100 g, which makes table salt look like a salty sauce. Sláinte keeps counting beyond that point.
Mapped to 100	The points total is converted to a 0 to 100 nutrition score, so a lower points total becomes a higher Sláinte number.

Rules that override the maths

Some categories look better per 100 g than they are in real life. These caps and floors are applied after the calculation.

Rule	Why
A product finishes at most 15 points above its own nutrition score	A short, clean ingredient list cannot rescue poor nutrition.
Artificially sweetened products stop at 74	Swapping sugar for sweeteners is not the same as a genuinely good product, so it is never shown as Excellent.
Dense sauces, dressings and condiments stop at 49	Per 100 g figures flatter things eaten by the spoonful.
Fried and extruded savoury snacks stop at 49	Crisps are crisps, whatever the pack says about them.
Dense cakes, pastries, biscuits and confectionery stop at 24	A donut with missing nutrition data is still a donut.
Single ingredient, additive free, unprocessed foods never fall below 55	Honey, nuts, plain yoghurt and olive oil are never ranked under an ultra processed snack.
A high concern ingredient overrides the band entirely	The verdict becomes "Avoid, contains a high concern ingredient." no matter what the maths said.