UK food scanner apps
Bear food scanner: what it costs, and what else scans a UK pack.
Bear is free to download. Its GB App Store listing carries an in-app purchase label and ten separate paid plans, running from £12.99 a year to £49.99 a year, with a monthly option at £9.99. The listing does not state a free scanning allowance.
It launched on 2 March 2026 from JP Viral Ventures Ltd. It scans for additives, seed oils and ultra-processed ingredients, and it is on Android as well as iPhone.
Written 20 September 2026 · Aaron Keen, founder, NutraSafe · App Store figures read 20 September 2026
The price depends on which screen you land on
Most apps list two or three in-app purchases: a monthly plan, an annual one, sometimes a one-off lifetime price. Bear's GB App Store listing shows ten. Several share a name and differ only in price.
| Plan name on the listing | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Bear Monthly Access | £9.99 | monthly |
| Bear Yearly Discounted | £12.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly Discounted | £19.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly Access | £24.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly | £29.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly Subscription | £29.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly | £39.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly Access | £39.99 | yearly |
| Bear Annual Subscription | £49.99 | yearly |
| Bear Yearly Access | £24.99 | yearly |
Read down that middle column and the annual price runs from £12.99 to £49.99, a spread of £37 for what the listing presents as the same yearly access. That is what price testing looks like from outside the app: different people get offered different numbers, and the App Store shows every variant at once.
Nothing about that is against the rules, and plenty of apps do it. It is worth knowing before you tap, because the plan you are shown is not necessarily the cheapest one that exists. You can see the full list yourself on the App Store page under In-App Purchases.
What Bear says it scans for
Taken from Bear's own App Store description, it detects seed oils, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, emulsifiers, synthetic dyes and ultra-processed ingredients, and returns what it calls a holistic rating based on ingredient quality and processing level. It also suggests cleaner swaps.
The listing does not name the database behind the ratings. That is worth checking on any scanner before you trust a score, ours included: a rating is only as good as the ingredient data under it, and UK packs are the hard case, because British labels usually print an additive's name rather than its E number.
Side by side, on the facts that are public
| Bear | NutraSafe | |
|---|---|---|
| Download | Free | Free |
| Paid plan | £9.99/month, or £12.99–£49.99/year across ten listed plans | £6.99/month |
| Free tier | Not stated on the listing | 25 diary entries a day, barcode scan and grade, allergen alerts on scans, and the additive count on any food |
| Platforms | iPhone and Android | iPhone, iPad and Android |
| Released | 2 March 2026 | 11 November 2025 |
| Additive data | Source not named on the listing | 516 E numbers and 417 named non-E ingredients, each with sourced evidence |
| Also tracks | Ingredient ratings and swaps | Calories, macros, vitamins and minerals, symptoms, fasting and workouts |
When Bear is the better pick
If you are on Android
Both are on Google Play, so the choice comes down to the same things as on iPhone and iPad. NutraSafe for Android needs Android 8.0 or later.
If seed oils are your main concern
Bear puts seed oils in its headline feature list. We hold refined rapeseed, sunflower and palm oil as named ingredients and flag them on a food, but we do not build the whole score around them, and we are not going to pretend the evidence on seed oils is more settled than it is.
If you want swap suggestions
Bear recommends alternative products. We do not recommend foods, on purpose: we tell you what is in the one in your hand and leave the choice with you.
What NutraSafe does with a UK pack
Scan a barcode and we match what the label declares, whether it is written as E223 or as sodium metabisulphite, against 516 E numbers and 417 named non-E ingredients such as glucose-fructose syrup, modified maize starch, hydrolysed vegetable protein and palm oil. Each entry carries what the substance is, why it is in there, and what the published evidence says, with its sources listed.
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 it checks the ingredients we hold for the Big 14 allergens. With Pro you get what each additive is and does, the AI Coach, suspected triggers from your reactions, vitamins and minerals and a full workout app built in. Pro is £6.99 a month.
If you want the wider field rather than one head-to-head, we keep a comparison of 14 UK food scanner apps with what each gives away free. The two most-asked-about are covered separately: Yuka and Ivy. If it is ultra-processed food you are chasing rather than additives, start with what actually counts as ultra-processed in the UK.
What people ask about Bear
Is the Bear food scanner free?
Bear is free to download. Its App Store listing carries an “In-App Purchases” label and lists ten paid plans, and it does not state a free scanning allowance. The cheapest plan shown is £12.99 a year and the dearest is £49.99 a year, with a monthly option at £9.99. Check the price on your own App Store page before subscribing, because the plan you are offered varies.
How much does Bear cost in the UK?
The GB App Store listing showed ten in-app purchases on 20 September 2026: Bear Monthly Access £9.99, and annual plans at £12.99, £19.99, £24.99, £29.99, £39.99 and £49.99. Several carry the same name at different prices, which is what price testing looks like from the outside.
Is Bear food scanner on Android?
Yes. Bear publishes an Android build on Google Play as well as the iPhone app. NutraSafe is on Google Play too, for Android 8.0 or later.
What does Bear scan for?
By its own App Store description: additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colours, seed oils, synthetic compounds and ultra-processed ingredients, with a rating based on ingredient quality and processing level. The listing does not name the database the ratings are built from.
Who makes Bear, and how long has it been out?
JP Viral Ventures Ltd. The app was released on 2 March 2026 and was on version 2.07 as of 8 September 2026.
What is the best food scanner app in the UK?
It depends on what you want the scan to tell you. For a free score with no subscription, the NHS Food Scanner and Open Food Facts are both genuinely free. For additive detail on a UK pack, our own comparison of 12 UK scanners sets out what each one gives away and what it charges for.
See what is on the pack in your hand
With the free version of NutraSafe you can scan a UK pack and see the number of additives on the label. Pro tells you in plain English what each one is and what the published evidence says about it.
Get NutraSafe on the App Store →It's free to download. With Pro you get the AI Coach, suspected triggers from your reactions, vitamins and minerals, and a full workout app built in.
NutraSafe Pro · £6.99/month · iOS
Last reviewed: 4 November 2026 · Sources: the Bear GB App Store listing and the iTunes lookup API, both read 20 September 2026; NutraSafe's own App Store listing; and NutraSafe's additive database.