Free tool

The Great-Grandfather Test (G.G.T.)

Ingredient checker. My rule is: don’t eat it if your great-grandfather wouldn’t recognize it. I built this for myself, to run that rule on a label. Scan a package, pick something off a menu or paste the ingredients, and the G.G.T. shows which ones he’d know, which ones he wouldn’t, and what each of those is in there to do.

Scan the package

Point your camera at the barcode. The number goes to Open Food Facts, a public product database, and its ingredient list comes back.

Or pick something off a menu

68 items from 14 chains so far, each copied from the chain’s own ingredient list. 7 more chains are listed with what they publish instead.

Or paste a label

Type it the way the label prints it, commas and brackets included. It’s read in your browser and sent nowhere.

What he’d make of it

Scan a barcode, pick something off a menu, or paste a label and press Check it.

How the G.G.T. sorts a label

  • Food: something he’d buy or grow. Oats, milk, eggs, tomatoes, salt.
  • Kitchen staple: processed, but he’d have it in the house. Sugar, white flour, butter, vegetable oil, vinegar.
  • Industrial: made or separated in a factory to do a job in the product. Emulsifiers, modified starches, gums, dyes, sweeteners, preservatives. For each one the G.G.T. says what that job is.
  • Not in my list yet: I haven’t added it, so the G.G.T. doesn’t guess and doesn’t count it.
  • The verdict goes by the industrial count: none, he’d know it. One or two, he’d squint. Three or more, he’d have no idea.
  • It reports what’s on the label. It doesn’t count calories, and it doesn’t say what to eat.

What I found

Who tells you what’s in it

I went looking for the ingredient lists of 21 fast food chains in Ontario. Some print every ingredient. Some only do it for the United States. Some don’t do it at all. This is what each one publishes, with the page I checked and the day I checked it.

Publishes an ingredient list for Canada (13)

  • Tim HortonsIngredients for each item, in the app and on the website.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • McDonald'sIngredients for each item, part by part, on the website.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • SubwayAn ingredient guide (PDF) for each bread, meat, cheese and sauce. Not for a finished sub.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • A&WIngredients for each item, part by part, on the website.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Pizza PizzaIngredients for each dough, sauce, cheese, topping and side. Not for a finished pizza.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Wendy'sIngredients for each item, part by part, on the ordering site.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • KFCAn ingredients listing (PDF) for each menu item.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Burger KingIngredients for each item, part by part, in its Nutrition Explorer.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Pizza HutAn ingredient listing (PDF) for each crust, sauce, cheese, topping and side. Not for a finished pizza.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Dairy QueenIngredients on most item pages. Some items, like fries, show none.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Taco BellIngredients for each item, part by part, in its nutrition portal.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • StarbucksIngredients for food items. The drinks I checked show none.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Five GuysAn ingredient and allergen guide (PDF) for each part: patty, bun, cheese, fries, shake base.Checked October 10, 2026: the page

Publishes ingredients for the United States only (3)

  • Domino'sIngredients on its United States site. The Canadian site’s ingredients page is switched off.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Little CaesarsIngredients in its United States guide. The Canadian guide has nutrition and allergens only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • ChipotleIngredients on its United States site. The Canadian site has a nutrition calculator only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page

Publishes no ingredient list (5)

  • Harvey'sNutrition and allergens only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • PopeyesNutrition and allergens only, in Canada and in the United States.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Mary Brown'sNutrition and allergens only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Mr. SubNutrition and allergens only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page
  • Osmow'sAn allergen chart and a nutrition calculator only.Checked October 10, 2026: the page

Why some don’t

In Canada, a prepackaged food with more than one ingredient has to list its ingredients on the label (Food and Drug Regulations, B.01.008). Most food sold in restaurants isn’t counted as prepackaged (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), so that rule doesn’t reach a burger handed over a counter.

Ontario’s Healthy Menu Choices Act has chains with 20 or more locations in the province post calories on the menu.

How I got the lists

Every list is copied from the chain’s own page or document, not from memory and not from another website. The ones I copied by hand I checked against the source a second time. Where a chain only publishes the parts (dough, sauce, cheese), the item is those parts put together, and the result names each part. Each result links to the chain’s list and gives the date I copied it. Recipes change, so theirs is the one to trust.