It’s that time of the year again when we start thinking about the New Year’s resolutions that we’re never really going to follow through with. We always want to eat healthier and get clear skin, but the biggest barrier to getting started is actually knowing which ingredients are good or bad for you. Lucky for us, Yuka has made this way easier! Yuka is an app designed to help consumers make informed decisions about the products they purchase and use. It helps people avoid harsh ingredients such as Endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens or irritants, and it eliminates the need to do all of that tedious research yourself.
Launched in 2017 by Benoit Martin, Francois Martin and Julie Chapon, the app gives users free and reliable ratings of a products quality out of 100. Users simply scan a product’s barcode and the app will give a rating based on the ingredients and additives included. The ratings for food are based on nutritional quality and additives while beauty products are rated in terms of risk.
According to Yuka’s website, the nutritional quality of food makes up 60% of it’s score, taking into account calories, sugar, salt, saturated fats, protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables. 30% of the score is determined by the presence of additives based on the latest scientific research, recommendations of the EFSA and the IARC as well as numerous independent studies. If a hazardous additive is present, the maximum score for the product is set at 49/100. The remaining 10% constitutes the organic dimensions of the product; this applies to those with an official national or international organic label.
For cosmetics, ingredients are classified into four risk categories: risk-free (green), low risk (yellow), moderate risk (orange) and hazardous (red). According to the website, “The score is based on the level of the highest-risk ingredient present in the product. If a hazardous ingredient (red) is present in the product, the score will automatically be red (lower than 25/100). If the highest-risk ingredient is a moderate-risk ingredient (orange), the product’s score will be lower than 50/100. The other ingredients will determine precisely which score the product receives within the defined range.”
Today, Yuka has over 34 million people using their established database. The app contains over 2 million food products and 1 million cosmetic products, and it is adding products by the day. However, Yuka still does not work on alcohol and dietary supplements like vitamins or protein powders.
Yuka is 100% independent, which means that they don’t collaborate with brands to promote products, so it is totally unbiased all while providing recommendations for alternatives based on the products you scanned.
Truly, once you start scanning, everything is surprising. Get on top of those resolutions this year, and check Yuka out.
Have you tried Yuka before? Tweet us your experience @VALLEYMag on Twitter and let us know!
