How we grade

No black box.

A Food Court grade is not an opinion. It is computed by a fixed, published formula that runs over the cited findings on record — the same inputs always produce the same grade, and every grade can be traced back to its sources.

Each finding contributes a score. The scores are added up. The total maps to a letter grade. That is the entire method, and it is printed below.

contribution = tier × severity × recency × evidence_type

score = Σ contributions · higher score = more cited concern

Source tier weight

Tier 1 — Regulatory1.00

Tier 2 — Peer-reviewed0.85

Tier 3 — Established institution0.65

Tier 4 — Investigative journalism0.45

Severity weight

Warning1.00

Concern0.70

Caution0.40

Informational0.10

Evidence-type modifier

Regulatory action / meta-analysis1.00

Randomized controlled trial0.95

Review0.85

Investigative (primary lab data)0.80

Observational0.75

Investigative (analysis of records)0.70

Recency modifier

Under 10 years old1.00

10–20 years (no active regulatory action)0.85

Over 20 years (no active regulatory action)0.65

Any age, backed by active regulatory action1.00

Letter grade

A — Case dismissedscore < 0.5

B — Released with a warning0.5 ≤ score < 1.5

C — Hung jury1.5 ≤ score < 3.0

D — Convicted, multiple counts3.0 ≤ score < 5.0

F — Guiltyscore ≥ 5.0

Processing level (the NOVA classification) is reported separately and does not affect the letter grade — degree of processing and cited harm are two independent signals.

Food Court reports publicly available findings from regulatory bodies, peer-reviewed research, and journalism. We cite every claim. We are not your doctor — we are a search engine for what's known about your food. Follow the links to the original sources.