Apps Like Yuka: Food Scanner Apps Compared
Four Yuka alternatives for US shoppers: Open Food Facts, EWG's Healthy Living, Fig and Bobby Approved, compared on scoring method, scope, cost and privacy.
| # | Pick | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Food Facts | Free, open-data scanning with Nutri-Score and NOVA |
| 2 | EWG's Healthy Living | Rating food, cosmetics and cleaners in one app |
| 3 | Fig | Allergies and restrictive diets like low FODMAP |
| 4 | Bobby Approved | A strict ingredient checklist on iPhone |
The closest free alternative to Yuka is Open Food Facts, a non-profit scanner that grades groceries with the same Nutri-Score foundation and shares its data openly. If you want cosmetics and cleaning products rated too, EWG’s Healthy Living covers all three; if allergies or a medical diet drive your shopping, Fig is the better tool; and Bobby Approved suits iPhone users who simply want problem ingredients flagged.
What Yuka does, and why people shop around
Yuka scans barcodes on food and cosmetics and returns a score out of 100. For food, its help center spells out the formula: nutritional quality, based on the Nutri-Score method, makes up 60% of the score, additives 30% and organic certification 10%. Each additive gets a risk color, and a single high-risk additive caps the product at 49/100. Cosmetics are scored differently: Yuka assigns every ingredient a risk level and flags potential endocrine disruptors, irritants, allergens and carcinogens.
On privacy, Yuka’s App Store label lists product-interaction data as linked to you and used for analytics and personalization, which is worth comparing with the alternatives below.
The company says it takes no funding from brands or manufacturers, and that brands cannot pay to advertise in the app. Its Premium tier adds a product search bar, offline mode and custom dietary alerts. People look elsewhere for a few reasons: they want open data, want household cleaners covered, need allergy screening built around a detailed diet profile, or simply prefer a different scoring philosophy.
Open Food Facts: the open-data original
Open Food Facts is a free, collaborative database, started in 2012 and run by a non-profit. Volunteers have added more than 4 million products from 150 countries, according to the project, and the free app shows Nutri-Score, NOVA processing groups and an environmental grade, plus allergen alerts and a food-preference match.
Two things set it apart. Everything is published under an open license, so its numbers are inspectable rather than proprietary. And its App Store privacy label says the data it collects is not linked to your identity. The trade-off is polish: entries depend on volunteers, so some products are incomplete. Our Open Food Facts explainer covers how the scores are built.
EWG’s Healthy Living: food plus what’s under the sink
The Environmental Working Group folds three of its databases into one free app: Food Scores, Skin Deep for cosmetics, and its guides to sunscreens and healthy cleaning. The App Store listing claims more than 200,000 rated products, each scored from 1 to 10 with 1 as the best. EWG’s food methodology blends nutrition, ingredient concerns and processing, with nutrition weighted most heavily.
A premium upgrade adds product comparison and ingredient preferences. Check the privacy label before installing: EWG reports that location and identifiers may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites. EWG also warns that versions released before November 2024 may show outdated data, so update if you’ve had it a while.
Fig: for allergies and restrictive diets
Fig, from Food is Good, Inc., takes a different approach. Instead of grading healthiness, it checks whether a product fits you. You build a profile from more than 2,800 options, including low FODMAP, gluten-free, vegan, low histamine and alpha-gal, and each scan tells you whether the ingredients match. Fig says its ingredient ratings and notes come from a team of more than 11 dietitians, and it supports profiles for several family members plus shopping lists.
The free version has limits. Fig+ adds restaurant guides, multiple profiles and unlimited scans. It’s available on iPhone and Android. Fig’s privacy label lists location as data used to track you, so review its settings.
Bobby Approved: a strict ingredient checklist
Bobby Approved does one thing: scan a barcode and it tells you whether the product passes. The app flags more than 100 ingredients it treats as potentially harmful, including natural and artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, food dyes, seed oils and certain preservatives, and highlights them in red. When a product fails, it suggests alternatives, and you can browse by store.
It’s free on the App Store and listed as iPhone only. Be clear about what you’re getting: a fixed avoid-list reflecting the app’s own choices, not a published nutrition model like Nutri-Score. Treat a red mark as a prompt to read the label and decide for yourself.
Side-by-side
| App | What it rates | Scoring style | Cost model | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yuka | Food, cosmetics | 0–100; Nutri-Score, additives, organic | Free; optional Premium | iPhone, Android |
| Open Food Facts | Food, plus sister databases | Nutri-Score, NOVA, environmental grade | Free | iPhone, Android |
| EWG’s Healthy Living | Food, personal care, cleaners | 1–10, lower is better | Free; optional premium | iPhone, Android |
| Fig | Food against your diet profile | Fits or doesn’t fit | Free with limits; Fig+ | iPhone, Android |
| Bobby Approved | Packaged food | Pass or fail on flagged ingredients | Free | iPhone |
Choosing one
Start with the question you’re actually asking at the shelf. “Is this reasonably healthy?” points to Open Food Facts or Yuka. “Is this safe for my allergy or diet?” points to Fig. “What about my shampoo and dish soap?” points to EWG. And if you’ve already decided which ingredients you avoid, Bobby Approved is the quickest check.
Before trusting any grade, run through three quick questions:
- Is the product record complete? Crowdsourced entries can be missing an ingredient list, and Open Food Facts, for one, cannot assign a processing group without it.
- What does the score weigh? Yuka publishes its 60/30/10 split; EWG publishes that nutrition carries the most weight in its food scores.
- Who pays for the app? Yuka says it is funded by Premium subscribers rather than brands, and Open Food Facts lists donations and public and philanthropic partners.
Whatever you pick, no score replaces the ingredient list and nutrition panel, and anyone with a serious allergy should still read every label. For the apps our editors singled out this year, see Best Food Scanner Apps of 2026.
Questions people ask
Is there a completely free alternative to Yuka?
Open Food Facts is free, run by a non-profit and publishes its database as open data. Bobby Approved is also listed as free on the App Store, while EWG's Healthy Living and Fig are free to download with paid upgrades.
Which Yuka alternative is best for food allergies?
Fig is built for that job. You set up a profile with your allergies or diets, from gluten-free to alpha-gal, and scans show whether a product fits, with ingredient notes from the company's dietitians.
Do these apps agree with each other?
Often not, because each uses a different model. Yuka and Open Food Facts lean on Nutri-Score, EWG blends nutrition with ingredient and processing concerns on a 1-to-10 scale, and Bobby Approved simply flags ingredients on its own list.
Sources
Guides are written by the Innovation Prizes editors from makers' documentation, regulators and published research. We do not take advertising or affiliate commissions. About us.