How Faye grades

What a garment is made of sets its band. Certification moves it one step inside that band, and never lifts it into a higher one. Any petroleum synthetic, even 1% elastane, keeps a garment out of the fully natural bands: it had to be manufactured, it won't break down, and it can't be separated from the natural fibre at the end.

GOTS audits the process, from the field through the factory. OEKO-TEX tests the finished cloth. One tells you how it was made, the other what is left in your hands.

Food starts from the UK's own nutrient profiling model, the one used for advertising rules, and then applies limits from the evidence:

• Ultra-processed food can be a C at best. With two or more red traffic lights it is an F.
• Processed meat is a D at best and unprocessed red meat a B at best, following the cancer research.
• Fruit juice and smoothies are a C at best, because their sugars count as free sugars.
• Sugars, syrups and honey are an E. Cooking oils are graded on the kind of fat in them.
• Plain fruit and vegetables never fall below an A, and nor do plain nuts and seeds whose fat is mostly unsaturated.
• Certified organic moves a product up one step, never past a limit.
• A* is only for certified organic whole plant foods with nothing added, including a traditionally made wholegrain loaf high in fibre, that also pass the sugar, salt and fat limits. Drinks never reach A*; plain water is an A.

Letters have steps, so an organic loaf can sit above a plain one:

Skincare, make-up, sun cream, bath and shower, and hair. Faye reads every ingredient against the official cosmetics database and scores the concerns: fragrance allergens (counted less in products you rinse off), undeclared perfume, and how ingredients are made. The score is never shown, only the letter it gives. A product listing one of the fragrance or preservative ingredients now banned from cosmetics, such as Lilial, Lyral or zinc pyrithione, is an F. If she can't identify more than a fifth of the list, there is no letter.

Laundry, dishes, bathroom and surfaces. Cleaning has fewer letters, because a cleaner either works with what nature provides or it relies on synthetic actives. The hazard statements on the label count, and so does the brand's own ecolabel or organic certificate.

For the home and the car. How a product releases its scent sets where it starts:

Then the label moves it, one letter for each fact:

• Up for every ingredient disclosed, an independent ecolabel, or essential oils only with their allergens named and pet and child warnings.
• Down for "parfum" or "fragrance" with nothing to say what's in it, for claims like "non-toxic" or "purifies the air", or for producing ozone.
• Some chemicals set a hard limit, whatever else is true.
• In a car, down one letter, or two for a vent clip or spray, because everyone inside breathes it in a small space.

Grading places a product where it truly sits. It is never about reaching a better letter.