How Can Upcycled Ingredients Improve Your NutriScore?
By: Ema Kosova, 27-01-2025
Today, consumers demand more from their food—better nutrition, greater transparency, and a lighter environmental footprint. NutriScore, a front-of-pack labelling system, is helping guide healthier choices, but improving NutriScore can be challenging for food brands. That’s where upcycled ingredients can come in!
At Agrain, we’re proud to offer a solution that can not only improve NutriScore but also promote sustainability. Made from the nutrient-rich sidestream from brewing, spent grain ingredients are a case in point of how underutilised resources provide the solution to a healthier population and a healthier planet.
What is NutriScore?
NutriScore is a simple, color-coded grading system that ranks foods from A (healthiest) to E (least healthy), currently used by 7 EU countries. Printed on the front of food packaging, NutriScore helps consumers quickly understand the nutritional value of products and make better choices. In the long term, NutriScore aims to reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases caused by high consumption of sugar, saturated fats, and salt, such as diabetes and heart disease.
With regulatory bodies and retailers increasingly emphasizing the importance of NutriScore, it has become a vital tool for food brands aiming to meet market demands for healthier products.

NutriScore label showing a score of 'A' ('most healthy'). (Source: Author's own.)
How is NutriScore calculated?
NutriScore is calculated by evaluating the nutritional quality of food using a simple but comprehensive algorithm. The system balances unfavourable nutrients against favourable nutrients to assign a score.
Unfavourable Nutrients (+ points): Foods are penalized with positive points for containing higher amounts of nutrients that should be limited in a healthy diet: Energy (calories), Saturated fat, Total sugars, Sodium (salt).
Favourable Nutrients (- points): Foods earn negative points for beneficial nutrients and components, such as: Fiber content, Protein content, Fruit, vegetable, legume, and nut content.
Final Score (⚖️): The negative points are subtracted from the positive points to calculate an overall score. Based on the score, the product is assigned a grade from A (healthiest) to E (least healthy).

Favourable and Unfavourable components of NutriScore calculation. (Source: eurofins.de)
NutriScore can only be used for foods with nutritional labelling, meaning it can't be applied to fruits and vegetables, for example.
How can Agrain’s upcycled ingredients improve NutriScore in products?
Upcycled ingredients utilise the parts of fruits, vegetables and grains that, although typically discarded, are often rich in nutrients that have the most positive impact on our health. Agrain’s spent grain ingredients are uniquely positioned to boost NutriScore ratings due to:
- High Fiber Content: Fiber lowers calorie density and is essential to digestive health and is therefore rated positively in NutriScore ratings. Agrain flour contains over 50% dietary fiber, making it a game-changer for baked goods, snacks, and more.
- Rich Protein Profile: Protein contributes to a balanced nutritional profile, supporting NutriScore improvements while appealing to health-conscious consumers. Agrain flour is a complete protein source, boasting all essential amino acids and up to 20g protein per 100g. Adding Agrain can help brands to creat products that meet consumer demands for protein-rich foods, while also improving NutriScore ratings.
Plus, Agrain ingredients are clean label, making them a safe, natural and delicious solution for healthier and more sustainable food products.
Case Study: From C to A in Burger Buns!
To give an example, we've taken an existing burger bun on the market and calculated its NutriScore with and without Agrain spent grain flour.* The original burger bun contains wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, rapeseed oil, sesame and table salt, and has a NutriScore of C.
If just 6% of the wheat flour is substituted with Agrain flour, and with just a tiny bit less salt (0.1g), the bun can score a much better NutriScore of B. Even better, swapping 10% of the wheat flour with Agrain flour has the potential to lead to NutriScore A!
As outlined above, this is due to the increased fiber and protein content. On top of this, spent grain flour adds more flavour and colour to the original burger bun, while having the potential to improve texture and increase shelf life thanks to its higher hydration capacity.

Adding Agrain spent grain ingredients can improve the NutriScore of your burger bun from C to A! (Calculations based on 01 Agrain flour and reported nutritional information of an existing burger bun.) (Source: Author's own.)
Agrain: Your Partner for Better Nutrition and Sustainability
NutriScore is a valuable tool for guiding consumers toward healthier food choices and helping brands differentiate themselves in a competitive market. By understanding how NutriScore is calculated and leveraging innovative ingredients, food producers can create products that excel in nutrition and beyond.
Agrain's upcycled ingredients not only improve NutriScore ratings but also deliver exceptional taste, texture, and environmental benefits. Whether you’re looking to enhance baked goods, pasta, or other food products, Agrain is your trusted partner in achieving these goals.
Let’s work together to create food that’s good for people and the planet. Reach out to explore how our upcycled spent grain ingredients can elevate your product portfolio while contributing to a healthier, more sustainable future.