Do you know what’s in your food? My mind has blown wide open since downloading this one app to my phone. I knew I needed a decoder in my life, a virtual assistant to take grocery shopping with me to help me understand the labels, and all of those hidden ingredients that are silently making us sick. It was one of our family resolutions in 2022 and in a year has completely changed the way we shop, the way we look at food, and the quality of our entire pantry. The best part? It’s free!

Say Yes to Yuka!

Yuka is a mobile app that scans food & personal care products to decipher their ingredients and evaluate their impact on our health. Just type in “Yuka” in your App Store on your phone or iPad, and you should see a little orange carrot – that’s the one!

What I love most? Two things: It’s FREE, and, it’s an independent application. What does that mean? The product analyses and recommendations are entirely objective. It was developed in France (where food additives/ chemicals/ regulations are far more stringent), and most importantly, Yuka receives no funding from brands or manufacturers.

How To Use It

The app is wildly simple. All you do is open the tiny carrot, and hit the “scan” button at the bottom. Your camera will open. Place the barcode on the item you want to know more about in the viewfinder and voila!

Here’s a great example of a new-to-me flour alternative that I scanned at Whole Foods and ended up using in our Buckwheat Banana Bread recipe:

Look at all of the categories it tells you more about! For me, the most impactful has been knowing more about the additives. For a long while (and I’m still kicking myself now) we used to eat this vegetarian bacon with breakfast. But LOOK at those scary additives. I’m a big believer in, when you know better, you do better, and it is no longer something any of us care to eat:

You can click on the category to expand and learn more, and LOOK at what comes up in the “bacon”:

3 Reasons To Try It:

1. If you’re trying to get everyone in your family on board to make healthy food swaps, this is a surefire way to do it. Grey thoroughly enjoys scanning everything at the store, and has taken such ownership of what he decides to put in his body.
2. It’s educational, empowering, and exciting to see how easy it is to say no to something once you know what’s really in it.
3. No matter your food goal – this can help! Trying to eat more protein? Less processed foods? Want to be more mindful of the additives we consume? Yuka for the win!

Have any questions we can help answer? We’ve been using Yuka for the past year and are happy to help. Leave them in the comments below!