Micronutrient score

How well 100 g of a food covers your daily requirements for five key micronutrients.

Reference

EU Regulation No 1169/2011 — Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) for food labelling.

EU Nutrient Reference Values (NRV)

Iron 14 mg / day
Calcium 800 mg / day
Vitamin C 80 mg / day
Vitamin D 5 μg / day
Vitamin B12 2.5 μg / day

How it works

For each nutrient, we calculate what percentage of the EU NRV a 100 g portion provides. A food that provides 20% or more of the NRV per 100 g scores 100 on that nutrient — this represents a meaningful contribution to the daily requirement.

The overall micronutrient score is the average of individual scores across the nutrients for which data is available. The bar chart shows the raw percentage of NRV, turning green when a nutrient exceeds the 20% threshold.

Why only five nutrients?

We track the nutrients most relevant to common deficiencies in the general population. Future versions will expand this list. The USDA dataset contains data for all five for most whole foods.