Boone turns published nutrition data into something more useful: what a food or meal means for a specific person's day, by age and sex, measured against UK government guidance. This page explains where our data comes from, how we calculate the figures, how our pages are produced, and how to tell us if something is wrong.
Restaurant and café chains. Figures for restaurant items come from each chain's own published nutrition and allergen information, such as its nutrition guide, allergen guide or website product pages. Every item page names the source and the version we used. We use UK figures for UK pages and US figures for US pages, because recipes and portion sizes differ between countries.
Supermarket and branded products. Figures for packaged products come from the nutrition information the retailer or brand publishes for that product.
Whole foods and ingredients. For whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and staples, and to fill gaps where a product's published data is incomplete, we use McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021, the UK's official food composition data, published by Public Health England.
Ingredients and allergens. Where a chain or brand publishes an ingredient list, we use it. Where it doesn't, we say so. Food made to order in UK restaurants is not legally required to carry an ingredient list, and we do not estimate one. Allergen information is shown as the chain or brand declares it.
When published data looks wrong. Occasionally a published figure contradicts the rest of a company's own data, for example a typo that makes one size larger than the next size up. Where this happens we correct it to a value consistent with the rest of their data, or hold the item back.
Each figure is shown as a share of what a person of that age and sex should have in a day, using these UK references:
NHS limits apply to free sugars, which are sugars added to food plus those in honey, syrups and juices. They exclude the sugar naturally present in milk and whole fruit. Most labels only show total sugar, so:
We score items with the government's nutrient profiling model (2018), following the Department of Health and Social Care's technical guidance. The model scores food per 100g, so we only score items with a known portion weight. Meal bundles and single-serve condiments are excluded, because the model is designed for individual foods. Where fruit, vegetable or nut content is not published, we score that part of the model as zero, which can understate items such as salads.
We classify foods using the NOVA system, based only on published ingredient lists. Our approach builds on research we have published with the University of East Anglia on classifying ultra-processed foods. If there is no ingredient list, we do not assign a NOVA group.
US pages use US published data and can show figures against UK guidance or the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Boone holds its nutrition data in a structured database. Calculations such as daily shares, free sugar and nutrient profile scores are worked out automatically from that data using the methods above, so the same rules apply to every item.
The explanatory text on each page is written with the help of AI tools, generated from that data and then checked against it. Product images are illustrations created for this site, not photographs of the real items.
We review pages for accuracy and correct anything that does not match the underlying data. Nutrition figures change when companies update their recipes and menus, so every page names the version of the source it uses.
Boone is a UK nutrition company based on Norwich Research Park. Murray Dare, co-founder, leads Boone's data and content and is a co-author of published research on classifying ultra-processed foods with the University of East Anglia.
If you think something on this site is wrong, please tell us, naming the page and what looks incorrect. We check every report against the original source and correct confirmed errors.
Last reviewed: October 2026.
Boone provides nutrition information for general guidance. It is not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, allergy or specific dietary needs, speak to a GP or registered dietitian.