Food scanner apps · UK · 2026
The short answer: NutraSafe, ours, if you want to know what is actually in the pack. It is the only app of the twelve that does both halves of the job: every additive named, what it does once it is in you, and who published the evidence, then the same scan in a diary that tracks your calories, 13 vitamins, 12 minerals and how you felt. If all you want is one number at the shelf, Yuka. Own-label calorie counting, Nutracheck. Every price and rating below was checked on the UK App Store on 9 September 2026, and we say which line is ours on every one where it matters.
12 apps · UK App Store prices and ratings, 9 September 2026 · One of them is ours
It's the only app that does thisUKJaneK
You Need This AppGmac2005
Best AppGK getting skinny
Additives, processing, sugar and salt, allergens, calories and what to do when the barcode is unknown. What NutraSafe shows for each, then the other apps that show it.
Every additive on the pack, named, with what it does in the body and the study behind it. A can of cola comes back as E150d, a possible cancer concern, and E338, easy to go over the limit on. The count is free; the names are Pro.
Yuka gives a 0 to 100 score and lists the additives. Open Food Facts shows the raw record.
The scan marks the pack ultra-processed, and the Insights tab adds up how much of the month's calories came from each of four bands aligned with the NOVA groups: 18% ultra-processed, 26% barely touched.
The Food App and Open Food Facts give a NOVA group for the single scan, free.
Per pack and per 100g, off the label. A 330ml can of Coke is 35g of sugar, past the 30g a day the NHS sets for adults, so it scores 15 with the caption very high sugar. Free.
The NHS Food Scanner shows traffic lights and sugar cubes. FoodSwitch suggests a lower-salt swap.
The ingredient list we hold is checked against the UK's 14 allergens and flagged on the scan; a cola comes up for sulphites. Free. The pack is the final word on "may contain", which no barcode carries.
The Food App, Ivy and Scrannr flag the allergens you set in the app.
Calories and macros on every scan, own-label from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Co-op and Waitrose as well as branded, logged to a diary with 25 entries a day free.
Nutracheck has 500,000 verified UK foods, on a week's free trial and then a subscription. MyFitnessPal has the biggest database of the twelve, with its barcode scanner free in the UK.
Photograph the front, the ingredients and the nutrition panel. The app reads them and the food is in your diary before you leave the aisle. Free, no waiting for an update.
Open Food Facts lets you add the product for everyone. The calorie counters let you type it in by hand.
Free download. Scan, ingredients, score, additive count and the allergen check are free; naming each additive is Pro at £3.99 a month.
Prices and ratings are from the UK App Store on 9 September 2026. App Store prices move, so treat these as the day we checked, not a promise.
| App | Built for | Free tier | Paid | Where the data comes from | UK App Store |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NutraSafeOurs | Additives named and explained, plus a diary for calories, vitamins, minerals, reactions, fasting and workouts | Free tierScan, ingredients, score, additive count, Big 14 allergen check, 25 logs a day. Naming each additive and the vitamin tracking are Pro | £3.99 a month£34.99 a year | UK own-brand and branded packs, read from the labelTesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Co-op, Waitrose | 4.535 ratingsiPhone, iOS 17 |
| NHS Food Scanner | Sugar, salt and fat traffic lights for families | Everything free | Nothing to pay | Brand Bank and FoodSwitch, per the NHS | 4.21,170 ratingsiOS and Android |
| Yuka | One 0 to 100 score at the shelf | Scan, score, additive list | Premium from £10 a yearAdds search, offline mode, unlimited history | Its own 4 million food products, French in origin | 4.827,533 ratingsiOS and Android |
| Open Food Facts | Open, community-built product data | Everything free | Nothing to pay | Volunteers, worldwide | 4.7393 ratingsiOS, Android, web |
| FoodSwitch | Lower salt, sugar or saturated-fat swaps | Everything free | Nothing to pay | The George Institute, with Action on Salt and Action on Sugar | 1.915 ratingsiOS and Android |
| Nutracheck | UK calorie counting with verified own-label foods | Trial onlyA week's trial, then Lite with daily limits | £6.99 a month£29.99 for 12 months | In-house verified, 500,000+ UK items | 4.8264,239 ratingsiOS and Android |
| MyFitnessPal | The largest calorie and macro database | Logging and barcode scanning, with ads | £15.99 a month£64.99 a year | 20.5 million foods, largely user-submitted | 4.7469,816 ratingsiOS, Android, web |
| Lose It! | Photo-led calorie counting | Logging, with ads | Premium £9.99 to £75.99Lifetime £59.99 | US-rooted, user-submitted | 4.741,272 ratingsiOS and Android |
| The Food App | Ultra-processed food and allergens | Unlimited scanning, UPF, additives, allergens, Nutri-Score | Plus £3.49 a month£24.90 a yearAdds search, categories and swaps | Norwegian Food Composition Table, tens of thousands of British products | 4.8360 ratingsiOS and Android |
| Ivy | Processed food, seed oils and additives | Trial onlyA three day trial, then Pro | Ivy Pro £8.99 to £39.99 | Its own 3 million products | 4.722,269 ratingsiOS and Android |
| Scrannr | A 0 to 100 score with additive flags, UK-made | Trial onlyA three day trial, then a subscription | £7.99 a month£24.99 a year | Open Food Facts, per its own listing | 4.97 ratingsiOS and Android, launched June 2026 |
| Bear | Seed oils, additives and "toxins" | Not stated on the listing | Monthly £9.99Yearly plans listed £12.99 to £49.99 | Not stated on the listing | 4.7364 ratingsiOS, launched March 2026 |
"Free to download" and "free to use" are different sentences. Here is where the twelve sit, from fully free to trial-only.
Scan any UK barcode and the free tier gives you the ingredient list, the score, how many additives were added, the Big 14 allergen check, calories and macros, and a diary that takes 25 foods a day. No trial, no expiry, no adverts. Pro, £3.99 a month, names each additive and tracks vitamins and minerals.
Yuka gives the score and the additive list, no diary. The Food App scans without limits for UPF and allergens, no diary. MyFitnessPal keeps the barcode scanner on its UK free tier, with adverts and no ingredient reading.
Public money or volunteers pay for these, so nothing is held back. What you give up is scope: traffic lights and swaps, or a raw product record. None of the three reads additives for you or keeps a food diary.
Nutracheck's Lite membership caps the diary each day once the week's trial ends. Lose It! logs with ads and holds photo logging for Premium. Both are calorie counters first and scanners second.
Ivy and Scrannr give three days, then need a subscription to scan at all. Bear's listing shows monthly and yearly access plans and no stated free tier. Nothing wrong with paying; just know before the trial ends.
Our own free and Pro split, line by line, is on the pricing page. Nothing about our free tier changes without that page changing first.
What each one is for, where it wins, where it falls short. Ours is first because we built it, and it gets the same three headings as everyone else.
The UK food scanner that names every additive, then keeps the scan in a diary with your calories, vitamins, minerals and reactions.
What it is for. Point the camera at a UK barcode and the pack comes back as a list you can read: the ingredients, how many additives were added, whether any of the Big 14 allergens are in the ingredient data we hold, the calories and the macros. That much is free. Pro names each additive, says what it does once it is in you, and cites the regulator or study behind any concern, from a library covering 574 E numbers. Pro also totals 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against the UK reference values as you log, and keeps reactions, fasting and workouts in the same diary.
If we do not have the pack, you are not stuck. The scanner says so, you photograph the front, the ingredients list and the nutrition panel, and the app reads them into a diary entry on the spot. That is on the free tier.
The Department of Health's free scanner: sugar, salt and fat as traffic lights, and a swap for next time.
What it is for. Scan a barcode and the app shows whether the product is high, medium or low in sugar, salt and fat, drawn as sugar cubes, fat lumps and salt sachets: a cube is 4g of sugar, a lump 1g of saturated fat, a sachet 0.5g of salt. Healthier options get a Good Choice badge, and it suggests a swap to try on the next shop. It keeps every product you have ever scanned. The NHS says the nutrient data is supplied by Brand Bank and FoodSwitch.
The best-known scanner in the world: one 0 to 100 score, an additive list, and a healthier alternative when a product scores badly.
What it is for. Picking a packet at the shelf. Yuka's listing claims 85 million users and a database of 6 million products, 4 million of them food. Scanning and the score are free with no adverts. Premium adds search, offline mode and unlimited scan history, and it is pay-what-you-like: the UK listing shows £10, £15 and £20 a year, and Yuka's help centre says the features are the same at each price.
The non-profit database behind half the scanners on this page, with its own app.
What it is for. Scan a pack and get the record volunteers have built for it: ingredients, additives, the Nutri-Score grade from A to E, the NOVA processing group from 1 to 4, and an Eco-Score. Anyone can add or correct a product, which is why the catalogue runs to millions. Scrannr's listing says all of its product data comes from here.
From The George Institute with Action on Salt and Action on Sugar: scan, then see similar packs with less salt, sugar or saturated fat.
What it is for. Scan a barcode and the app shows red, amber or green for fat, saturates, sugars and salt, then lists healthier alternatives from the same category. SaltSwitch narrows that to lower-salt options, which is the reason Action on Salt backed it. The listing claims over a million barcodes. FoodSwitch also supplies the nutrient data behind the NHS Food Scanner.
The long-running UK calorie counter, with an in-house team checking the own-label entries.
What it is for. Losing weight on UK food. The listing claims 500,000 verified UK items, with Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, M&S and Waitrose named, and product photos on the cards so you pick the right pack first time. It tracks calories and seven label nutrients: carbs, protein, fat, saturated fat, sugar, salt and fibre. Barcode scanning and photo search are in.
The default calorie counter, with the biggest database anywhere.
What it is for. Logging anything edible. The listing claims 20.5 million foods, most of them user-submitted, which is why a restaurant dish or a brand you brought back from holiday is usually in there. In the UK the barcode scanner stays on the free tier; in the US it moved behind Premium in 2022, which is why so many forum threads say otherwise. Premium adds meal scan, voice logging and the deeper nutrient views.
US-built calorie counter with photo logging and group challenges.
What it is for. A calorie budget, a weight-loss schedule and the lowest-effort logging in the category: photograph the plate, or say it out loud, and it logs. The UK listing shows Premium at several price points from £9.99 to £75.99, with a lifetime licence at £59.99, and it does not say which is the monthly and which the annual plan, so check before you buy. Photo and voice logging sit on Premium.
A Norwegian ultra-processed food scanner with a UK catalogue and unlimited free scanning.
What it is for. Telling you whether a product is ultra-processed and whether it contains an allergen you have set, for nothing and without a scan limit. It also lists the additives, shows Nutri-Score, and pulls ingredient detail from the Norwegian Food Composition Table. Plus adds search, browsing by category, swaps and extra things to avoid. The developer, Beneficial Apps AS, says the UK database holds tens of thousands of British products.
A processed-food scanner that grades seed oils, additives and packaging, subscription first.
What it is for. Cutting processed food out. The listing claims 3 million products and grades each on seed oils, additives, pesticides, heavy metals, microplastics and packaging, with dietary profiles for vegan, keto and the rest and an allergen list you set. Full access needs Ivy Pro after the three-day trial; the UK listing shows Pro Access at £8.99, £19.99, £29.99, £32.99 and £39.99 without saying which is monthly and which is yearly.
A UK-made scanner from June 2026: a 0 to 100 score, additive flags and allergen alerts, built on Open Food Facts.
What it is for. A Yuka-shaped score with more said about each additive. Scan a barcode for a health score out of 100, an ingredient breakdown with additive flags, the nutrition panel per 100g and per serving, allergen alerts and a healthier alternative. Scan history stays on the phone with no account. The listing states that all product data comes from Open Food Facts, so its coverage is that database's coverage. You need an active trial or subscription to scan.
A "holistic" scanner from March 2026 aimed at seed oils, additives and what its listing calls toxins.
What it is for. Scanning a pack for seed oils, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, emulsifiers, synthetic dyes and ultra-processed ingredients, then a "holistic" rating and a cleaner alternative. The listing is written for low-tox and whole-food shoppers. It does not name its data source, and the only prices on it are subscription plans, so treat it as paid.
Not on the list: Trash Panda, Bobby Approved, Fig and Olive are US apps built on US product data. They will scan a multinational brand in a UK supermarket and draw a blank on the own-label next to it, so we have left them out rather than review them on a database they were not built for.
A 330ml can of Coca-Cola Original Taste. Four screens, every word of them from the pack and the published evidence.
35g of sugar in the can. The NHS says adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, so one can is already past it. That is why the score reads 15 and the caption reads very high sugar.
E150d, sulphite ammonia caramel. The colour. The ammonia process forms 4-methylimidazole, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists as possibly carcinogenic to humans, Group 2B. California requires a warning above 29 micrograms of it a day.
E338, phosphoric acid. The sharpness. Easy to go over the daily limit regulators set if cola is a daily habit, which is the line the card carries rather than a lecture on phosphates.
The count is free. The names, the plain-English line and the evidence are Pro, at £3.99 a month. If you only ever want the count, keep the free tier; it does not expire.
The barcode goes to a database and the database sends back a record. Everything after that is a choice the app made. These are the four choices that matter.
Ours shows the list on every scan, free, and so do Yuka, Open Food Facts, The Food App and Scrannr. The NHS app and Nutracheck do not; they read the nutrition panel. If you have ever wondered what "acidity regulator" meant, you need the list, not a grade of it.
Six colours, E102, E104, E110, E122, E124 and E129, must carry the words "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children" on any UK or EU label. An app that only counts additives cannot tell you that one of the six is in the sweets. Our Pro tier names each one and says what it does and who found out. Yuka, Open Food Facts, The Food App, Ivy and Scrannr name them too.
The UK recognises 14 allergens that must be emphasised on a label. Ours checks the ingredient data we hold against all 14 on the free tier, and Open Food Facts, Ivy, The Food App and Scrannr check against the ones you set. None of them can see a "may contain" warning that is printed on the pack but missing from the record, which is why every one of us says: read the pack.
A scanner answers "what is in this?" A diary answers "what have I eaten this week, and what did it do?" Yuka, the NHS app, Open Food Facts, FoodSwitch, Ivy, Scrannr and Bear stop at the first question. MyFitnessPal, Nutracheck and Lose It! answer the second for calories. Ours answers it for calories, 13 vitamins, 12 minerals, additives and how you felt.
A count of additives is a number. A name is a decision you can make in the aisle.
Why the free tier counts and Pro names
A company reviewing its own product against its rivals is a conflict of interest. We do not pretend otherwise; we show the working.
Every price is the in-app purchase list on the GB storefront that day, every rating is the GB rating and count. Where a listing shows several price points without saying which is monthly, we say so instead of guessing.
We scanned our own weekly shop through the apps we have on our phones and read the rest from their listings and websites. We have not run a controlled accuracy trial on all twelve, and nobody else has published one either. Treat any app that claims "most accurate" with caution, including ours.
Each app gets a strength, a limitation and who it suits. The order is not a ranking. We think ours is the most complete for a UK shopper who reads ingredient lists, and we still name the four questions other apps answer better.
Every NutraSafe number on this page, 25 logs a day, 574 E numbers, 13 vitamins and 12 minerals, £3.99 a month or £34.99 a year, is a shipped number checked against the build before publishing. New to scanning? How to use a food scanner app walks through a first scan step by step, and the food barcode scanner page covers what ours reads from a UK label.
Taken from what people type into Google before they land here, and from the support inbox.
For a UK shopper who wants to know what is in the pack, ours, NutraSafe: every additive named and explained with its evidence, the Big 14 allergen check, calories and macros, and the scan going into a diary that tracks 13 vitamins, 12 minerals and reactions. We make it, so weigh that. If you only want a single score at the shelf, Yuka. If you only want UK own-label calorie counting, Nutracheck. If you only want free traffic lights, the NHS Food Scanner.
Yes. Ours is free to download, and the free tier scans any UK barcode, shows the ingredient list, the score, the additive count, calories, macros and the Big 14 allergen check, with up to 25 food logs a day and no expiry. Naming each additive is Pro at £3.99 a month. Yuka's free tier gives the score and the additive list, The Food App scans without limits, and the NHS Food Scanner, Open Food Facts and FoodSwitch have no paid tier at all.
There is no independent UK accuracy test to point to, so treat any app that claims the title with caution, ours included. Accuracy is really the database: how many UK own-brand packs it holds and how recently each was checked. The honest test is to scan five products you buy every week. The app that returns all five with the right ingredient list is the accurate one for your shop.
For its one job, yes. Scan a barcode and it shows whether the product is high, medium or low in sugar, salt and fat, drawn as sugar cubes, fat lumps and salt sachets, with a Good Choice badge and a swap for next time. It is free on iOS and Android and rated 4.2 from 1,170 UK ratings. It keeps no food diary, counts no daily calories, and does not cover ingredients, additives, E numbers or allergens. The NHS says its nutrient data comes from Brand Bank and FoodSwitch.
Several apps flag ingredients on a free tier, and they mean different things by it. Our free tier tells you how many additives are on the pack and which of the Big 14 allergens are in the ingredient data we hold; naming each additive and setting out the published evidence is Pro. Yuka's free tier gives a score and lists the additives. Open Food Facts lists them for nothing. The NHS app does not cover additives at all.
Ours does, with the reason next to it: a can of cola reads 15, very high sugar, rather than a bare number, and tapping through gives the additives behind it. Yuka and Scrannr both give a 0 to 100 score that blends nutrition and additives into one figure. Open Food Facts uses the Nutri-Score letters A to E instead, and the NHS app uses traffic lights.
Ours marks the pack ultra-processed on the scan, across four bands aligned with the NOVA groups, and then adds it up: the Insights tab shows what share of the month's calories were ultra-processed, not just one pack. Open Food Facts shows the NOVA group from 1 to 4 on each product, The Food App marks products ultra-processed on its free tier, and Ivy grades processing behind its subscription.
No. Ivy gives a three day trial, then full access needs Ivy Pro, which the UK App Store lists at £8.99, £19.99, £29.99, £32.99 and £39.99 across monthly and yearly plans. The scanners on this page with a permanent free tier are the NHS Food Scanner, Open Food Facts, FoodSwitch, The Food App, Yuka and ours.
Yes. Yuka is on the UK App Store, rated 4.8 from 27,533 UK ratings, and scans UK barcodes. Its database is French in origin, so branded multinational products are usually there and supermarket own-label lines are hit and miss. Scanning and the score are free; Premium is from £10 a year.
Yes, within limits. Ours checks the ingredient data we hold against all of the UK's 14 allergens on the free tier and flags them on the scan. Open Food Facts, Ivy, The Food App and Scrannr check against the ones you set. No app can see a "may contain" warning that is printed on the pack but absent from its record, and recipes change. The pack in your hand is the final word.
On ours, the scanner tells you, and you photograph the front of the pack, the ingredients list and the nutrition panel. The app reads them into a diary entry on the spot, on the free tier, so you are not waiting for a database update. On Open Food Facts you can add the product yourself for everyone. On the calorie counters you type it in.
No. Every app on this page, ours included, works from a record of the pack, and records go stale when recipes change. A scanner makes the label faster to read and, in our case, connects it to what you ate the rest of the week. The packaging is always the source of truth.
Every price, rating and product claim traces to one of these. Read on 9 September 2026.
Free download. Scan any UK barcode for the ingredients, the score, the additive count and the Big 14 check, with 25 logs a day. Pro, £3.99 a month or £34.99 a year, names each additive with its evidence and tracks 13 vitamins and 12 minerals against UK reference values.
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