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. For how the scanners themselves compare, seven are tested side by side in the best food scanner apps UK roundup.
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
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 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.
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, 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.
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).
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.
Try it on your next
Sainsbury's shop.
It's free to download. With the free version you can log a Taste the Difference bacon or a By Sainsbury's wrap 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.
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