A WISEcode label story
Where does the rainbow come from?
Not the fruit. There isn’t any.
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What it is
It starts as rice
Plain milled rice — the one whole-ish food in the box.
Then it’s puffed, sweetened, sprayed with flavor, and dyed four colors. A formulation — not a fruit.
The science
Four kinds of food
In 2009, scientists stopped sorting food by its nutrients and started sorting it by how much it’s been changed.
Group 4 — ultra-processed: industrial formulas built from extracted substances and additives a kitchen doesn’t stock.
Group 1Whole & minimally processedrice, an egg, milk
Group 2Culinary ingredientsoil, salt, sugar
Group 3Processed foodscanned veg, cheese, bread
Group 4Ultra-processedindustrial formulations
The evidence
Read it like a scientist
-
Rice
The base
-
SugarThe #2 ingredient by weight — 12 g added sugar a serving.
Added sugar
-
Canola / soybean oil
Extracted
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Salt
Kitchen staple
- Red 40 · Yellow 5 · Yellow 6 · Blue 1Four synthetic dyes — the rainbow is colour, not fruit. Dyes · marker
- Natural & artificial flavor“Fruity” is a flavour. There is no fruit anywhere on the list. Flavour · marker
- BHTA synthetic preservative, added to keep the oil from going stale. Preservative · marker
- 11 added vitamins & mineralsVitamin A, the B-vitamins, C, D, iron, zinc — sprayed back on. Fortified
One marker of ultra-processing is enough to classify a food. Count them here.
Sugar, four dyes, artificial flavour, a preservative — this isn’t one marker, it’s a stack.
The verdict
By NOVA, this is Group 4
Ultra-processed
The colours are dye. The fruit is flavour. The second ingredient is sugar.
✓Genuinely fortified. Vitamin A 50%, B12 80%, folate 60%, iron, zinc — real added nutrition, and low in fat.
!12 g added sugar a bowl is 25% of a day. The box holds about 108 g — roughly 26 teaspoons, ~225% of a day’s added sugar.
•Zero fruit, zero fiber. The “fruity” is flavour and colour; there’s nothing of the fruit it pictures.
NOVA grades how a food is made — not how it tastes, and not its health on its own. The vitamins are real; so is the sugar and the dye. Diets high in ultra-processed foods are linked to poorer health in large studies, but one bowl isn’t a verdict. Now you can see what it is.
The receipt
It’s all on the label
Nutrition Facts
About 9 servings per container
Serving size1 cup (36g)
Amount per serving
Calories140
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 1.5g2%
Saturated Fat 0g0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 190mg8%
Total Carbohydrate 31g11%
Dietary Fiber 0g0%
Total Sugars 12g
Includes 12g Added Sugars25%
Protein 1g
Vitamin D 2mcg10%
Calcium 0mg0%
Iron 1mg6%
Potassium 20mg0%
Vitamin A50%
Vitamin C10%
Thiamin35%
Riboflavin40%
Niacin40%
Folate 240mcg DFE60%
Vitamin B1280%
Zinc15%
* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
NOVA Group 4 · Ultra-processed
The panel never says “ultra-processed,” and the front says “fruity.” Now you can read past both.
Scan another product →
Transparency, not a verdict
You can’t un-see it now.
Same idea, any product: the label tells you what’s in it — WISEcode tells you what it is.
Scan another product →