Scan or search thousands of South African products, decoded into simple ingredient and nutrition insights, so you can make more informed choices.
14,000+ distinct products, across 17,000+ pack sizes and barcodes.
Not the marketing on the front of the box. Ingredient Quality comes from the actual ingredient panel, checked against additives with published research behind them; Nutrition Grades come from verified nutrition-panel data where it exists.
We're not affiliated with any manufacturer, retailer, or regulator. There's no paid placement, no sponsored listings, and no way for a brand to influence a rating.
Add a profile for your toddler, your teen, or yourself. The product's underlying scores stay consistent, while personalised warnings highlight ingredients and concerns that matter specifically to that person.
Evidence-backed ingredient flags reduce the score according to their weighting. The more research behind a concern, the larger the deduction. Think of the final number less as a judgment, more as a heads-up.
| Ingredient | Level | Score impact |
|---|---|---|
| Southampton Six artificial colours Tartrazine, Quinoline Yellow, Sunset Yellow, Carmoisine, Ponceau 4R, Allura Red | High | −25 pts each |
| Artificial sweeteners Sodium Cyclamate, Acesulfame-K, Saccharin | High | −25 pts each |
| Aspartame (E951) Contains phenylalanine, flagged for PKU | High | −25 pts |
| Synthetic antioxidants BHA (E320), TBHQ (E319) | High | −25 pts each |
| Hydrogenated / partially hydrogenated oil Trans fat. WHO says no safe level of intake exists. | High | −25 pts |
| Sulphur dioxide (E220) / sulphites May trigger asthma symptoms | Moderate | −12 pts |
| Glucose syrup Highly processed sugar | Moderate | −12 pts |
| MSG (E621) | Moderate | −12 pts |
| Unspecified flavouring | Low | −4 pts |
| General food colourants | Low | −4 pts |
| Potassium sorbate (E202) Common preservative, generally recognised as safe | Low | −4 pts |
| Carrageenan (E407) Thickener, some evidence of gut irritation | Low | −4 pts |
Peanuts, tree nuts, GMO status and palm oil are shown on a product's page but don't affect the Ingredient Quality score. An allergen is a risk to a specific person, not a universal quality issue; GMO and palm oil's environmental footprint are separate from ingredient safety; and palm oil's saturated fat is already captured in the Nutrition score, where that data exists.
Ingredient lists don't say how much of anything is inside, so two products can share an equally strong ingredient profile while one is loaded with sugar. Where nutrition-panel data is verified, TrustDex also calculates a Nutrition Grade, A to E, from sugar, saturated fat, sodium and energy per 100g/100ml, using Nutri-Score, the front-of-pack label used across much of Europe.
When both are verified, Ingredient Quality and Nutrition Grade combine into one Overall Score, weighted 60% toward nutrition, since sugar, fat and salt tend to matter more for everyday health than trace additive levels. A guardrail stops either half from cancelling out a real problem in the other.
Nutri-Score is a European system. Wherever we have verified nutrition data, we also check a product against South Africa's own draft front-of-pack warning-label regulation, R3337, published by the National Department of Health for public comment in 2023 and modelled on Chile's mandatory warning-label law. It's still a draft, not yet enacted into law. We show it because it's the most South-Africa-specific nutrition research available, not because it's a legal requirement yet.
Unlike the graded A–E Nutrition Grade, R3337 is a set of simple "high in" flags: a product either crosses a threshold or it doesn't, so it can carry zero to four warnings. It never changes your Overall TrustDex Score or Nutrition Grade. It's a separate, additional lens that uses the same verified sugar, saturated fat and sodium data.
| Warning | Solid food | Beverage |
|---|---|---|
| High in Sugar | ≥ 10g per 100g | ≥ 5g per 100ml |
| High in Saturated Fat | ≥ 4g per 100g | ≥ 3g per 100ml |
| High in Sodium | ≥ 400mg per 100g | ≥ 100mg per 100ml |
| Contains Sweetener | Any non-nutritive sweetener present | |
Thresholds are taken from the draft regulation's own nutrient-profile model (Annexure 10), cross-checked against a peer-reviewed compliance study citing that table. Source: Government Gazette No. 47965, 31 January 2023.
TrustDex keeps every product's underlying scores consistent, while profile warnings give you additional context based on age, allergies, sensitivities or health considerations.
Plus personalised warnings for products matching selected sensitivities
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