Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms you’ll see across the site. Severity labels are written lowercase, the way they appear on change records.
10 terms shown
- minor
- A small label change with little practical impact — e.g. wording or formatting tweaks that don't alter what's in the product.
- substantial
- A meaningful change to the product as printed — e.g. an ingredient added or removed, or a notable nutrition shift.
- allergen
- A change to the allergen statement on the label. Flagged on its own because it can matter for safety.
- diff event
- A recorded difference between two dated snapshots of the same product, generated when a new version is published.
- snapshot
- A dated capture of a product's label as it was at one point in time — ingredients, nutrition, allergens, and other label-visible details.
- version
- A published snapshot in a product's timeline. The history is the ordered list of versions.
- surface
- One comparable facet of a label — ingredients, nutrition, allergens, serving size, claims, net content, or region.
- transcription variance
- A difference that comes from how a label was typed in, not a real product change — e.g. spacing or capitalization.
- evidence
- The proof backing a recorded change — label photos, retailer pages, or official statements.
- discontinued/uncertain
- A product we believe is no longer sold, or whose current status we can't confirm from the evidence we have.