Data Requirements Before Scoring: Sanitation and QA Checks

Source: The WISEcode Standard v1.0, Section 7. Relevant to product loading in Portfolio.

Why records are sanitised first

Commercial product data arrives inconsistent. The Standard requires a sanitation pass before any score is produced, so that two records describing the same formulation are scored the same way.

The required clean-up actions

• Compound parsing. Declarations such as "seasoning (salt, sugar)" must be split into their component ingredients.
• Prohibited Daily Values. Any record showing a percent Daily Value for Trans Fat or Total Sugar is flagged, because no such Daily Value exists. These are treated as data errors.
• Deduplication. After parsing, duplicate entries resolving to the same canonical name are collapsed into a single occurrence for scoring.

What to check before you submit a product

1. The UPC or GTIN is correct and matches the finished good, not a case or variant pack.
2. The full ingredient declaration is present, with sub-ingredients given for every compound.
3. Serving size, total calories and added sugars in grams are all declared and internally consistent.
4. No percent Daily Value appears against Total Sugar or Trans Fat.
5. Nutrition Facts Panel images are legible and correspond to the current formulation.

If a product will not load

Most load failures trace to a UPC mismatch, a missing sub-ingredient breakdown or an invalid panel value. Correct those first. If the record still fails, raise a support request with the UPC and the source of your UPC data so the ingestion log can be checked.

Unpackaged goods

Items without a barcode fall outside the Standard, because the methodology relies on a GTIN or UPC to identify the product and retrieve nutrient content.