How safe are your products and food? Is there a healthier alternative?

A friend and colleague recently introduced me to what they referred to as “the carrot app.” (If you've seen the icon, you'll understand why—it resembles a small orange carrot!) The app is actually called Yuka. Curious, I decided to try it out, and I liked it so much that I felt the need to share this little gem with you!

What Does Yuka Do?

Yuka is essentially a scanner for your health. You use the app to scan the barcode of a food or cosmetic product, and it provides a score that reflects its healthiness or safety. It goes beyond just a number, offering a breakdown of why a product scores the way it does and suggesting alternatives if the product doesn’t meet your standards.

For food, the app looks at factors like nutritional content (sugar, salt, calories, etc.), the presence of additives, and whether the item is organic. For cosmetics, it focuses on the potential health risks of ingredients, such as allergens or hormone disruptors. Perhaps the most useful thing however, is that it provides a list of healthier alternative choices to the product you have scanned.

The Biggest Shockers: White bread and Butter Chicken

One of the most eye-opening moments for me was discovering the difference between two brands of white bread - and that one of them was even more healthy (well... not healthy exactly, but less harmful!) than the seeded batch alternative! By swapping out the Warburtons white bread (rating of 48/100 due to 5 risky additives) for Warburtons Old English White (rating of 78/100 - the additives are classed as having no risk to health), the score jumped by an astonishing 30 points—from “poor” to “excellent.”

Even more shockingly, the Tesco seeded batch also has a poor rating of 49 due to risky additives, and one of the additives is actually classed as "high risk - avoid".

It seems that in this case, choosing a clean white bread over a wholemeal seeded batch is actually the healthier choice. Don't get me wrong, I am very aware that eating a seeded wholemeal bread is healthier than eating white bread, due to the higher fibre, vitamin and antioxidant content etc. but in this case I'd rather my children weren't consuming a daily dose of an additive known to be harmful to health.

Here’s another surprise: as with bread, not all ready meals are created equal. Some aren't actually that bad. Take Tesco’s butter chicken, for example—it’s rated “excellent” on the app, with low salt and no additives. Proof that a ready meal doesn’t have to be unhealthy or expensive.

I’d love to eat only unprocessed, organic food, but the reality of my daily life—especially with two constantly ravenous teenage boys—means perfection just isn’t possible. That’s why it’s so helpful to have a tool that can prevent harm, even if I can’t completely change their minds (or their taste buds).

For those with a scientific perspective, there are numerous lists of evidence highlighting the dangers of these concerning additives.

While I love how empowering this app is, I can’t help but feel frustrated that this kind of transparency doesn’t come from the manufacturers or regulators themselves. Why is it up to us, the consumers, to figure out what’s safe and what isn’t? Why are they getting away with adding these risky ingredients? The fact that we need an app to flag these issues says a lot about the gaps in consumer protection.

So in conclusion, if you’re curious about the food you eat and products you use every day, Yuka might be worth checking out. It’s a small step toward a healthier, more conscious lifestyle.