Yuka

While I may not need an app to confirm that ginger snaps score 1/100 'bad' and probably should not be eaten every day, most food and cosmetics have puzzling long ingredient lists that can be confusing.

There is a huge, growing demand for transparency in the products we consume and that gave Benoit Martin the idea for Yuka, a mobile app that uses barcode scanning to give a quick colour-coded score out of 100.

Food is measured on nutritional quality, additives and how organic they are. The beauty products are rated in terms of risk, from low (green dot) to high (red dot). so you can make a quick judgement based on the colour and score for any product. You can also tap on the rating to view a breakdown of the positives and negatives that explain why it got that score, complete with links to scientific research.



The main goal for the app is to have a strong impact on society by helping consumers make better choices and also to apply some pressure to industries that often put profits before health.

Founded in France in 2017 by Martin, his brother Francois, and their friend Julie Chapon, Yuka started with food, but requests from users prompted it to add cosmetics ratings. The cosmetics evaluation assesses potential effects on health and the environment, so it considers whether products such as soap, shampoo and skin cream are endocrine disruptive, carcinogenic, allergenic, have irritants, or are polluting.



The Yuka ratings for food come from three weighted considerations: 60% from the Nutri-Score, 30% from additives, 10% based on whether the product is organic.

Nutri-Score is used in many European countries, using a simple five-colour label categorising food from A to E. Attributes like high energy density, sugar content, saturated fatty acids, and salt negatively affect the Nutri-Score, while fibre, protein content, and the presence of fruits, vegetables or rapeseed, walnut, or olive oil positively affect the score.



With a database now containing 3 million referenced products, the app has garnered more than 30 million downloads. As a result of its rapid growth and heavy usage, Yuka is positively affecting how food and cosmetics manufacturers create their products.

When Yuka started grading beauty products, Mathilde Thomas, the founder of Caudalie sped up a plan to remove silicones and petroleum-based compounds from Caudalie’s moisturisers and cleansers.



The transparency the app brings has not been welcomed by FICT, a trade group representing 300 French charcuterie manufacturers. It filed a lawsuit against Yuka alleging that it has “disparaged” its members’ products by assigning them low scores if they contain nitrates, a preservative that helps protect shelf life and colour. In 2015, the World Health Organization said nitrates in processed meats were probable carcinogens for humans. That the industry has brought out the heavy artillery against Yuka is a sign of how threatening this type of technology-enabled tool can be to corporations today.



It is clear that Yuka has a vast capacity to grow worldwide due to the ease it will bring to choosing the right products. A big challenge is the construction of a viable, long-term business model while remaining independent. They do not accept money from brands and industrials, do not allow advertising in the app, and do not resell personal data.

By Anna Bance
November 2022