Our thinking

Yuka(n) buy better

15 March, 2024

In the bustling aisles of the supermarket, Sophia felt a pang of uncertainty. Amidst the sea of products adorned with flashy labels and enticing promises, how could she be sure she was making the right decisions? In a Times article, Sophia’s story explains how the Yuka app is using technology to harness consumer-driven power to change the quality of our daily food and care products.

With a simple scan of a barcode, this app unveils the truth behind almost every single product you can find in the food or personal care department of your supermarket – Yuka’s database includes more than ten million products. It rates the product from 0 to 100 and provides a data sheet to help the consumer understand the health impact of food products and cosmetics, through additives, sugar, calories, fibre, proteins, or allergens, irritants, potential endocrine disruptors…but also proposes a healthier alternative and where to find it.

This app has an obvious positive impact on its users: they are empowered to make informed choices and adapt their grocery choices progressively until they have a 100/100 healthy cart – if they want. But what we find most interesting is that, by having such a big success worldwide, the use of this app is influencing manufacturers by creating a growing demand for transparency, quality ingredients and ethical practices. The app now counts 50 million users across several countries, and it’s bringing about industry change: Yuka says that several manufacturers have already  made changes to the quality and transparency of the ingredients they use to improve their Yuka score.

95% of users say they are now eating more healthily. We hope that this consumer-driven behaviour change initiative will also lead to 95% of manufacturers saying they are also willing to offer healthier products.

By Flora Gicquel