Scanning Lidl food
with NutraSafe: a quick guide.
Lidl runs on a tight own-brand range: Deluxe at the top, Vemondo for plant-based, Pilos for dairy, plus the weekly Themed Week lines that arrive on a Thursday and disappear by the next. We read the barcodes; here's what shows up. Still deciding which app to point at the pack? Seven of them are tested against UK products in our best food scanner apps UK roundup.
Point.
Read. Log.
Lidl tills are famously fast. The only window to look at a pack is in your trolley. Two taps and the ingredient list, additives and nutrition panel are on your phone.
Open NutraSafe, tap Scan
Camera opens. Point at the EAN-13 barcode on the back of the pack. We fetch the food data, surface the ingredient list, calories, macros and additives.
The flag is the bit to read
The number of additives is free. Pro tells you what each one is and does, in plain English, with the source on a flagged concern.
Tap Log to add to your day
Calories, macros and salt add to your day. Pro adds vitamins and minerals updating in real time. Free covers 25 food logs a day.
If a Themed Week code misses
Mittel-deal items and Themed Week lines (German Week, Italian Week, Spanish Week) sometimes arrive faster than the databases. Tap Add manually, type the four numbers from the back: kcal, protein, carbs, fat. Forty-five seconds and you're done.
One supermarket,
a dozen sub-brands.
Lidl own-brand runs about 85 percent of the shop. Knowing which sub-brand you're holding tells you a lot before you even scan.
Deluxe
The premium tier. Dry-cured meats, sourdoughs, single-estate oils, fish counter ranges like Deluxe Scottish smoked salmon. Ingredient lists tend to be shorter, additive-light.
Vemondo (plant-based)
Plant milks, yoghurts, ready meals. Useful range; emulsifiers (E471, E472e) and thickeners (E407, E412) show up in the more processed lines. The scan tells you which.
Pilos (dairy)
Yoghurts, Greek-style cheese, Skyr. The plain pots are clean. Flavoured Pilos drinks sometimes carry artificial sweeteners and colourings; the scan picks them out.
Crownfield, Milbona, Snaktastic
Crownfield is cereals. Milbona is dairy basics. Snaktastic is crisps and party food. The breakfast cereals often add iron and vitamins; we surface the NRV percent per serving.
What a Lidl
scan tends to surface.
We don't grade Lidl. We list what's there. Below: additives the scanner sees most often on Lidl packs.
E250 sodium nitrite
Used to cure ham, bacon and chorizo. Eating cured meat regularly is linked to bowel cancer. NHS caps processed meat at 70g a day. IARC Group 1, Monograph 114 (2018).
Southampton Six colours
E102, E104, E110, E122, E124, E129. UK products containing any of them must carry "May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." Occasionally on Themed Week confectionery.
E951 aspartame
The sweetener in many Saskia diet drinks and sugar-free cordials. IARC reclassified it Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic) in July 2023. EFSA Acceptable Daily Intake stayed at 40mg/kg of body weight.
E471 mono- and diglycerides
A common emulsifier in own-brand bread, spreads and biscuits. We surface it so you know the long ingredient line is there if you're trying to keep the shop closer to whole foods.
Frequently
asked.
Real questions from Lidl shoppers using the app.
Yes. Lidl own-brand ranges (Deluxe, Vemondo, Pilos, Crownfield, Milbona, Simply, Newgate, Snaktastic and the rest) use standard EAN-13 codes. If a UK barcode is in our food databases, the scanner reads it. Newly listed lines or short-run weekly deal items occasionally miss; tap Add manually and four fields from the back of the pack cover it.
Full ingredient list, nutrition panel, calories and macros against your day, the number of additives we recognise. Pro tells you what each one is and does. It checks the ingredients we hold for the Big 14 allergens, but always check the packet itself, our data can be out of date, so never rely on any app for a serious allergy. Vitamins and minerals are on Pro.
It's free to download. With the free version you can log up to 25 foods a day and get the calories, the macros and the number of additives, and log reactions while you build a baseline. Pro is £6.99 a month or £40.99 a year. With Pro you get the AI Coach, suspected triggers from your reactions, vitamins and minerals, and a full workout app built in, and it tells you what each additive is and does.
The middle aisle (Mittelgang) is mostly non-food. Food Themed Week lines (German Week, Italian Week, Spanish Week) often arrive faster than the databases. If a code comes back empty, the manual add takes four numbers and you're done.
Cured meats (Deluxe chorizo, sliced ham, salami) often carry sodium nitrite (E250). Some confectionery still uses Southampton Six colours that require the mandatory UK hyperactivity warning. Sweetened Saskia drinks and diet ranges often contain aspartame (E951) or acesulfame K (E950).
Try it on your next
Lidl shop.
It's free to download. With the free version you can log a Deluxe chorizo or a Vemondo oat drink and get the calories, the macros and the number of additives. With Pro you get the AI Coach, suspected triggers from your reactions, vitamins and minerals, and a full workout app built in, and it tells you what each additive is and does. Pro is £6.99 a month or £40.99 a year.
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