How we turn a label into a score
Every product in Saina carries one number and one letter. This page explains how that number is worked out — for a face cream and for a breakfast cereal — and what we deliberately refuse to decide for you.
One scale, two catalogues
A score runs from 0 to 100 and carries a letter. That letter means the same thing whether you are holding a shampoo or a jar of hazelnut spread.
- A90–100
Excellent
- B75–89
Good
- C50–74
Average
- D25–49
Poor
- E10–24
Bad
- F0–9
Avoid
The letter is a summary, never the whole story. Every score in the app opens into the reasons behind it, so you can disagree with us about one ingredient or one nutrient and still use the rest.
How a beauty product is scored
Saina reads the ingredient list printed on the pack and works down it, one ingredient at a time.
Every ingredient is matched, not guessed
Each name on the list is matched to Saina's ingredient master, where it carries a risk tier — risk-free, low, moderate or high — together with the evidence that put it there.
The worst ingredient sets the ceiling
A product cannot outrun its riskiest ingredient. One moderate-risk ingredient caps the product in the C band, and a high-risk one holds it lower, however good the rest of the formula looks.
Position in the list carries weight
Ingredient lists are ordered by how much of each ingredient is in the product, so the same ingredient is penalised more heavily near the top of the list than near the bottom.
Rinse-off is judged more gently than leave-on
A cleanser or a shampoo is on your skin for a minute; a moisturiser stays there all day. Rinse-off products are penalised less for the same ingredient — except for the most serious flags, which are never softened.
What we have not rated yet is counted, never invented
An ingredient that is not yet in our master is left out of the calculation and shown to you as a count, so you can see how complete the picture behind a score is.
Skin types and flags come from the same list
The eight skin-type scores are built from which ingredients help or hurt each skin type, and the pregnancy and pore-clogging flags are derived from the ingredients too — not from a separate opinion about the brand.
How food and drink are scored
A food score is built from two things: what the nutrition panel says, and which additives the product contains.
Nutrition is most of the score
Nutrition accounts for 60% of a food score and additives for 30%. The nutrition part is judged with the method published in 2023 by Santé publique France for the Nutri-Score; the number you see is Saina's own, re-weighted and capped.
Always per 100 g or per 100 ml
Nutrition is judged per 100 g or per 100 ml, never per suggested portion. Otherwise a small serving printed on the pack would let a sugary cereal buy a better grade with a smaller bowl.
Different foods, different tables
Drinks, fats and oils, cheese and red meat each have their own point tables, alongside a general one for everything else, so an olive oil is not measured against the yardstick used for a soft drink.
The rest is the additives
Each additive is matched by its E-number to Saina's additive master, where it is rated on the regulatory evidence available for it. A single high-risk additive caps the product at 49, however good the nutrition is.
Ultra-processing is shown, not scored
We show how processed a product is, using the published NOVA groups 1 to 4. It is there so you can see it, and it does not move the score up or down.
"Not rated yet" means exactly that
A product with no category, or with no nutrition panel we can read, is shown as not rated yet. We would rather show you a gap than a guess.
What Saina deliberately does not do
Some judgements are not ours to make. Where that is the case, we show you the facts and stop there.
We do not issue halal rulings
We show halal-relevant facts: whether an additive's source is plant or synthetic, animal-derived, possibly animal-derived, or alcohol, plus any certification printed on the pack. We never call a product halal or not.
We do not guarantee anything about allergens
We show what the pack declares — "contains" and "may contain". An allergen that is not listed simply was not declared, and that is not proof it is absent.
This is not medical or dietary advice
A Saina score is information about a product, not guidance about your health. For anything that matters medically, talk to a doctor, an allergist or a registered dietitian.
Medicines are never scored
Saina covers beauty products and food and drink. Anything sold as a medicine sits outside what this method can judge, and it is never given a score.
Infant formula and baby food are never scored
Feeding an infant is a decision for parents and their doctor, guided by rules written for it. Our method is not built for that, so we do not apply it.
Where the data comes from
Saina is assembled from public and published sources. These are all of them.
The pack itself
The ingredient list, the nutrition panel, the declared allergens and any certification mark are read from the product label.
Open Food Facts and Open Beauty Facts
Two collaborative open databases of products from around the world. Saina uses them under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0.
Community submissions
People using Saina can send in a product that is missing. Every submission is reviewed by the Saina team before it appears.
Published regulatory evidence
Ingredient and additive ratings rest on published sources: the EU cosmetics regulation, SCCS opinions, EFSA opinions and IARC classifications.
Sources and licence
The share-alike condition of that licence applies to the contents of the database. Saina's scores are Saina's own work and are not part of it.
Some product images come from Open Beauty Facts under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence; those images are credited on the product itself in the app.
The method answers to you, not to brands
Nothing on this page changes because a manufacturer asks. No brand can pay to be scored differently, and none of them sees a score before you do.
How we stay independentMethod last revised September 2026.