Methodology & Data

The science behind our footprint and nutrition ratings

Every food and recipe in Ecobite carries two transparent ratings. Here is how we calculate them - from farm-to-fork life cycle assessments to nutritional balance.

Every bite has a story. We make it easy to read.

Every food and recipe in Ecobite is assessed on its environmental impacts and on its nutrients, and summed up in two simple ratings: a nutrition rating and a footprint rating. They're built on trusted, widely used scoring methods, so you don't need a science degree to use them.

Find what fits, faster

Filter recipes by the ratings that matter most to you, and find tasty, fulfilling meals in moments, without any of the guesswork.

No compromise

Nutrition and footprint, shown side by side, so you can weigh both at a glance without giving up the food you love.

Dig deeper

Feeling curious? Every rating opens up into the detail behind it, from climate, land and water to the nutrients on your plate.

Our Data

Farm-to-fork environmental data (Agribalyse)

Where your food comes from. Every ingredient has a journey behind it: grown on a farm, processed, packaged, transported, and sold before reaching your kitchen. Each stage leaves its mark on the planet - and a true Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) adds them all up.

Our environmental figures come from Agribalyse, Europe's leading public reference database for the environmental impact of food, developed by the French environment agency (ADEME) and agricultural research institute (INRAE). Covering over 2,500 foods across Western European supply chains, we apply its life cycle data to every ingredient in every recipe to calculate impact per portion and per kilogram.

Farming
Processing
Packaging
Transport
Retail
Your kitchen

The six stages Agribalyse follows, from the farm to your fork

Comprehensive nutrient data (USDA FoodData Central)

What your food is made of. Once a meal is on your plate, what matters is how it nourishes your body: energy, protein, fibre, sugars, fats, salt, and essential vitamins and minerals.

Our nutritional baseline comes from FoodData Central, the comprehensive public nutrient database maintained by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which we curate and standardise for everyday home-cooking ingredients. For our front-of-recipe nutrition rating, we evaluate six core nutritional factors per 100 grams:

Energy
Protein
Fibre
Sugars
Saturated fat
Salt

The six core nutritional factors used to calculate every recipe's nutrition rating, with its share of vegetables, fruit, pulses and nuts (with full vitamin and mineral breakdowns tracked inside the app)

What We Measure

Four key indicators, one clear picture

Climate change is crucial, but carbon emissions aren't the only way food shapes our planet. While our composite score accounts for 16 environmental categories, the app highlights the four primary impacts of your plate:

Climate change

The greenhouse gases released as the food is grown, made and brought to you, measured in kg CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e).

Land use

How much farmland it takes to grow the food, and how that farming affects the health of the soil.

Water use

The fresh water the food needs, weighted by how precious water is in the places where it's grown.

Nutrient pollution

Nutrients, mostly from fertilisers, that wash into rivers, lakes and seas and upset the life in them. Scientists call it eutrophication.

Climate change (kg CO₂e)

Greenhouse gases - like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - emitted during farming and production that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Eutrophication (g N eq)

Nutrient runoff - mostly nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilisers and manure - that washes into rivers and oceans, triggering algae blooms and harming aquatic life.

Land use (m² for a year)

The total area of land required to grow crops and animal feed over time, along with how intensively farming affects soil health and biodiversity.

Water scarcity (L eq)

The freshwater required to produce a food, weighted by how scarce water is in the specific region where that ingredient is grown.

Footprint Rating

From 16 life cycle impacts to one clear label

We combine individual environmental impacts using the European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology, which normalises and weights 16 distinct environmental categories by their global severity.

The result is measured in PEF points (millipoints, mPt) per kilo of food. A recipe with up to 0.27 mPt per kilo has a very low footprint, up to 0.43 a low one, up to 0.74 medium and up to 1.51 high. Anything above 1.51 mPt per kilo has a very high footprint. Drinks have their own, stricter limits.

1
Ingredient data
The life cycle impact of every ingredient, per kilo, from Agribalyse
2
Per portion
Added up for the amounts in your recipe, peel, shells and all, because they were grown and transported too
3
Weighted with PEF
All the impacts the method covers, brought together into one score
4
Five levels
The footprint label you see in the app

All five footprint labels, from best to worst

Footprint Rating

From 16 life cycle impacts to one clear label

The combined impact is measured in PEF millipoints (mPt) per kilogram of food and mapped onto five intuitive levels - from Very Low to Very High. Because liquids naturally weigh more per serving, drinks are evaluated against stricter per-kilo thresholds.

1
Ingredient data
The life cycle impact of every ingredient, per kilo, from Agribalyse
2
Per portion
Added up for the amounts in your recipe, peel, shells and all, because they were grown and transported too
3
Weighted with PEF
All the impacts the method covers, brought together into one score
4
Five levels
The footprint label you see in the app

≤ 0.27
≤ 0.43
≤ 0.74
≤ 1.51
> 1.51

The five levels and their limits, in mPt per kilo

Nutrition rating

Nutrition rating for food and drinks

Ecobite's nutrition rating is inspired by Nutri-Score, the front-of-pack label used across Europe, which rates the nutritional quality of food and drinks from A to E.

For every 100 grams of a recipe, we count points in a similar way. A recipe loses points for energy, sugars, saturated fat and salt, and gains points for fibre, for protein and for the share of vegetables, fruit, pulses and nuts in its ingredients. Protein only counts in full when a recipe isn't already high in the nutrients to limit. The balance of those points gives one of five levels, from a very high to a very low nutrition rating.

All five nutrition labels, from best to worst

Nutrition rating

Nutrition rating for food and drinks

Ecobite's nutrition rating is inspired by Nutri-Score, the front-of-pack label used across Europe, which rates the nutritional quality of food and drinks from A to E.

For every 100 grams of a recipe, we count points in a similar way: points against for some nutrients, points in favour for others. Protein only counts in full when a recipe isn't already high in the nutrients to limit.

Note on alcohol: Because standard nutrient formulas only penalise calories, sugar, saturated fat, and salt, alcoholic beverages could artificially score well despite their health risks. In line with public health guidelines, alcoholic drinks are automatically assigned a Very Low nutrition rating.

1
Per 100 grams
The nutrients in the parts you actually eat, from FoodData Central
2
Points against
For energy, sugars, saturated fat and salt
3
Points in favour
For fibre, protein, and the share of vegetables, fruit, pulses and nuts
4
Five levels
Points in favour minus points against: the balance gives the nutrition rating you see in the app

≥ 2
≥ −1
≥ −9
≥ −18
< −18

The five levels and their limits, in points per 100 g

Case Study

Chilli Tofu: From raw ingredients to two clear labels

Take a stir-fry made with tofu, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and seasoning sauces. Standardised per 100 grams, here is what happens under the hood:

Climate: 0.08 kg CO₂e
Nutrient pollution: 0.48 g nitrogen
Land: 0.07 m²
Water: 120 litres

Footprint

0.08 kg 0.08
kg CO₂ eq
emissions
0.48 g 0.48
grams N eq
emissions
0.07 m² 0.07
m² Land use
for 1 year
120 l 120
litres Water
use eq

Nutrition

84 kcal 84
kcal Energy
0.71 g 0.71
grams Saturated
fat
4.8 g 4.8
grams Protein
0.59 g 0.59
grams Salt

When weighted across all 16 EU PEF categories, Chilli Tofu earns a Very Low Footprint (≤ 0.27 mPt/kg) - while its high protein, low saturated fat, and high vegetable content earn it a Very High Nutrition Rating (≥ 2 pts).

See the recipe in the app

References

Sources

Scientific sources

How these ratings help you every day

Find what fits, faster

Filter recipes by the ratings that matter most to you, and find tasty, fulfilling meals in moments, without any of the guesswork.

No compromise

Nutrition and footprint, shown side by side, so you can weigh both at a glance without giving up the food you love.

Dig deeper

Feeling curious? Every rating opens up into the detail behind it, from climate, land and water to the nutrients on your plate.

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