With a packet of biscuits in one hand and her smartphone in the other, Nathalie sees red. Literally. The Yuka app, open on her screen, flashes a 0/100 in red lettering. “This is one of Malo’s [her 12-year-old son’s] favourites but it’s not only full of sugar and saturated fats, there are four additives as well including one health risk,” she says. Clicking on E450, she reads: “A mineral which, taken in excess, can lead to bone marrow and kidney problems.” She sighs. “Honestly, that they can put this sort of thing in food aimed at children drives me nuts!”
Nathalie, shopping in a Hyper U supermarket west of Paris, is part of a growing movement. Yuka, an app developed in France in 2015, now has 85 million users across 12 countries. Users scan barcodes of products – from food to cosmetics – and the app immediately rates them green, yellow or red, with detailed nutritional breakdowns. The database holds six million items, with about 1,200 new ones added daily.
“Yuka food tracking app has five million UK users, scanning barcodes to rate healthiness.”
In the UK, Yuka has around five million users, making it the third-biggest market after France (six million) and the US (28 million). The US also boasts a high-profile fan: Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, says Yuka is his favourite app.
The app’s co-founder and CEO, Julie Chapon, moved to the US three years ago because of its success there. “I’m thrilled to be in a country where there is still so much progress to be made,” she says, diplomatically.
Back in the French aisle, Nathalie scans an Italian alternative whose packaging suggests hand-made quality, but the score is barely better. “Malo hates shopping with me now,” she says. “You spend ages scanning and he can never have what he wants.” The app suggests an organic, wholewheat, fruit-and-fibre substitute. “You end up buying a lot more organic stuff so it’s more expensive,” Nathalie adds.
Yuka is one facet of a wider food-tracking trend. In 2012, French programmer Stéphane Gigandet launched Open Food Facts, a free, online crowdsourced database, during the Food Revolution Day. The question remains: as more Britons turn to their phones to police their diets, are these tools truly making us healthier – or just more anxious?