Trash Panda App Ingredient Ratings

How does the Trash Panda Food Scanner Rate Scanned Products?

At Trash Panda, we make it simple to understand what’s really in your food. Our ratings are based on the number of potentially harmful ingredients, questionable ingredients, and added sugars in each product—so you can make smarter choices, faster.

Good Choice

Products rated Good Choice contain 0 potentially harmful ingredients, 2 or fewer questionable ingredients, and 2 or fewer added sugars.
These are products you can feel confident about—cleaner options that align well with your health goals.

OK Choice

Products rated OK Choice contain 0 potentially harmful ingredients, 5 or fewer questionable ingredients, and 5 or fewer added sugars.
These products aren’t necessarily harmful, but they may include ingredients worth a closer look. We highlight them so you can decide what works best for your body and your goals.

Better Options Available

Products rated Better Options Available contain at least one of the following:

These products aren’t the strongest choice for your health. When you can, consider swapping for a cleaner alternative—we’ll help you find one.

Our Ingredient Categories:

We rate individual ingredients in the following ways:

Potentially Harmful Ingredients

We identify "potentially harmful" ingredients based on research that has identified poor health outcomes as a result of their consumption. These ingredients may be considered safe in the quantity consumed for most people, but we think everyone has the right to be aware of the potential negative effects of these ingredients on their health, both in the short term and in the long term.

Questionable Ingredients

"Questionable" ingredients have not necessarily been proven harmful in scientific studies, but are ingredients you may want to be aware of because they are additives, not whole food ingredients. In some cases these ingredients haven't yet been studied enough to know their impact. We want you to be aware of these ingredients, but aren't recommending that you avoid them entirely.

It's important to note that our recommendations on potentially harmful and questionable ingredients may change as new scientific research becomes available. Our knowledge of health and nutrition will continue to evolve with the latest in evidence-based research, but we always recommend that you consult with your doctor about any health related concerns or questions.

Added Sugar Ingredients

It’s important to be aware of how much sugar we consume because eating too much added sugar can lead to adverse health effects. Added sugars include sugars and syrups that are added during the preparation or processing of foods. Because these additives go by many names, we have a separate category specifically for these ingredients, so you can be aware when they sneak into foods you wouldn't expect like salad dressing or ketchup.

What are "Bio-Engineered Food Ingredients"?

Any foods that include the following ingredients (if not labeled organic or non-gmo) will be flagged as “may be bioengineered” to bring more awareness to the GMO ingredients in your food. This feature is available to all users.

How do I customize Dietary Preferences?

As part of the Trash Panda Premium Membership, subscribed users can customize which ingredients they want to be flagged based on their personal dietary preferences. For example, if you choose to flag all ingredients that contain dairy, you will now see an additional category for dairy when you view a product in the app. If an ingredient falls into multiple categories (i.e. dairy + potentially harmful), it will show in both categories.