Diet-Nutrition Misinformation Risk Assessment Tool
(Diet-MisRAT)
A licensed tool for stratifying misinformation risk in nutrition, diet, and related health content
Further Information
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“In public health we assess exposure to risk factors. We believe misleading health information should be treated in the same way. Some misinformation can lead to serious harm, so mitigation strategies should be proportionate to the level of risk. The more severe the potential harm, the stronger the response should be.”
– Alex Ruani, UCL misinformation researcher and tool developer
About the Diet-Nutrition Misinformation Assessment Tool (Diet-MisRAT)
The DietMisRAT is the first structured assessment instrument designed to identify, classify, and quantify misinformation risks in medium-to-long form diet-health content. It enables researchers, practitioners, platforms, and policy makers to stratify content based on specific, domain-relevant risk factors, moving beyond binary classifications.
Developed using a de novo Misinformation Risk Assessment Model (MisRAM) grounded in established WHO risk assessment principles, the tool captures four interconnected risk dimensions:
- Inaccuracy
- Incompleteness
- Deceptiveness
- Health harm
DietMisRAT supports systematic content analysis by helping detect nuanced risk traits. It is intended for use in research, education, content auditing, regulatory oversight, and public health communication. Its stratified estimation of misinformation risk levels (from very low to very high) seeks to guide prioritisation and proportionate decision-making.
MATERIALS
Ruani A, Reiss M, Kalea A. Development and Validation of a Tool for Detecting Misinformation Risk in Diet, Nutrition, and Health Content (Diet-MisRAT). Scientific Reports (Springer Nature) 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40534-2
PRESS RELEASE
New UCL study launches AI-ready scoring model that ranks health and diet misinformation by harm potential. Researchers develop graded risk model to quantify misleadingness and potential harm in online diet and nutrition content. Continue reading →
UCL NEWS
New tool spots and evaluates nutrition misinformation’s potential for harm. A new tool that not only identifies diet and nutrition misinformation online but also evaluates the content’s risk for potential harm has been developed by a team of UCL researchers. Continue reading →
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