Scanning Sainsbury's food
with NutraSafe: a quick guide.
Sainsbury's runs Taste the Difference at the top, By Sainsbury's as the everyday line, plus Free From and a handful of supporting sub-brands. Branded sits alongside. Here's what shows up on the scan, the additives that come up most often, and a worked example.
Point.
Read. Log.
Same routine as any supermarket. Two taps and you have the ingredient list, additive flags and nutrition panel 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
Every additive we recognise is named in plain English; flagged concerns carry the source on the line. Free users see the flag. Pro users see the full detail (regulator, year, dose context).
Tap Log to add to your day
Calories, macros and salt add to your day against UK NRV. Pro adds vitamins and minerals updating in real time. Free covers 25 food logs a day.
If the code's not found
Newly listed lines or regional ranges occasionally miss. Tap Add manually, type the four numbers from the back of the pack: kcal, protein, carbs, fat. Forty-five seconds and the entry's in your diary.
One supermarket,
four own-brand tiers.
Knowing which tier you're holding tells you a lot before you scan.
Taste the Difference
Premium tier. Dry-cured meats, hand-stretched mozzarella, single-estate oils, aged cheddars. Shorter ingredient lists tend to mean fewer additive flags. A good place to start if you want a cleaner shop.
By Sainsbury's
The everyday mid-tier. The biggest chunk of the shop. Mainstream ingredient lists, very consistent scanning, regular reformulations. Most of the basket lives here.
Free From
Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free substitutes. Scans normally. Longer ingredient lists because the substitutions add stabilisers (E412 guar gum, E407 carrageenan) to replace the structure of wheat or dairy.
Stamford Street Co., Hubbub, J. James
A small clutch of newer challenger sub-brands aimed at supermarket regulars. They scan like any own-brand line; ingredient transparency tends to be the headline.
What a Sainsbury's
scan tends to surface.
We don't grade Sainsbury's. We list what's there. Below: the ones we see most.
E250 sodium nitrite
Used to cure Wiltshire ham, bacon and salami. 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 jelly, ice lollies and some confectionery.
E951 aspartame
The sweetener in many own-brand diet drinks, sugar-free cordials and chewing gum. IARC reclassified it Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic) in July 2023. EFSA Acceptable Daily Intake stayed at 40mg/kg of body weight.
E412 guar gum and E407 carrageenan
Plant-derived thickeners. Often appear in Free From bakery and plant-milk lines. We surface them so you know the long ingredient line is there if you're trying to keep the shop closer to whole foods.
One pack of
Taste the Difference bacon.
Taste the Difference Wiltshire-cure unsmoked back bacon, 240g. Common Saturday-morning scan.
From the back panel. Logs to your day.
Sodium nitrite. Cured-meat preservative. Linked to bowel cancer with regular intake.
None in the ingredients we have. Cross-contact lives on the pack.
Two rashers is roughly 13 percent of the NHS adult daily max (6g).
Frequently
asked.
Real questions from Sainsbury's shoppers using the app.
Yes. Sainsbury's own-brand ranges (Taste the Difference, By Sainsbury's, Free From, Stamford Street Co., Hubbub, J. James and the rest) use standard EAN-13 codes. If a UK barcode is in our food databases, the scanner reads it. Newer lines occasionally miss; tap Add manually and four fields cover it.
No. Nectar is the loyalty programme for till offers. The barcode scanner reads the standard product EAN-13 regardless of whether you're a Nectar member.
Full ingredient list, nutrition panel, calories and macros against your day, a flag on every additive we recognise. Pro users see the additive in detail. Big 14 UK allergens are spotted in the ingredient list. Vitamins and minerals on Pro track against UK NRV.
Cured meats (Taste the Difference Wiltshire ham, By Sainsbury's bacon) usually carry sodium nitrite (E250). Some confectionery still uses Southampton Six colours that require the mandatory UK hyperactivity warning. Diet drinks across own-brand often use aspartame (E951) or acesulfame K (E950).
The download is free. The free tier covers 25 food logs a day, the barcode scanner with the additive flag, the reaction log up to 5 entries, and the E-number library on this website. Pro is £3.99 a month or £34.99 a year and lifts the caps, adds the AI Coach, workouts and fasting.
Try it on your next
Sainsbury's shop.
Scan a Taste the Difference bacon or a By Sainsbury's wrap and we read the barcode, list the additives in plain English and add the calories to your day. Free download. Pro £3.99 a month for AI Coach, workouts and fasting.
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