Yuka - Food & Cosmetic Scanner

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1. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

   not free. who’s paying for these features? why does every app want money from a monthly subscription

2. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

   Not approved. This is not approved and does not have skin care specialist in staff trust approved sources

3. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

   Do not use. This app I used to use and THOUGHT it was helping me make healthy choices. Until I found a new app called Olive. I scanned the same item and olive actually broke down and explained why it was unhealthy where the Yuka app said it was “healthy”. So I cross referenced and looked up what olive said was unhealthy and it was true. So I got rid of my subscription to yuka since they probably got bought out. Not to mention to all you mamas Olive you can scan baby formula and get the one without heavy metals!

4. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

   Yuka Buns. Nah man this app sucks it acts like every food you scan is gonna kill you unless of course a brand pays Yuka to make them appear good like this uses the most words no one has heard of and tells you it means that you’ll have “involvements in overweight, adverse affects on the liver, shorter growth, immune system weakened, gut microbial disturbed, Type 2 diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, yada yada yada like let me ask you this Yuka: I’ve been eating a lot of these 5/100 products for a long time, and I’m totally fine. Stop worrying your customers and stop scamming people with premium. 1 star. Do not recommend. Edit: I’ve got it! This is the scale: Rating 0-25 - Company didn’t pay Yuka. Rating 26-50 - Company paid Yuka 2.5K or less. Rating 51-75 - Company paid Yuka 2.5K+ Rating 76-100 - Company paid Yuka 10K+ “High Risk” Additives: 7+ Company dissed Yuka and got rewarded with Yuka saying that the additives in it are SUPER BAD 4-6 Company paid Yuka but was heard that they only gave a 4 star review😱🙄 1-3 Company paid Yuka 10K and also got a 76-100 rating. 0 Someone who works at Yuka has a relation to this company. Now, YUKA: STOP SCAMMING PEOPLE! I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH “SODIUM PHOSOPHATE” OR “ACESULFAME POTASSIUM” SO STOP TELLING ME IM GONNA DIE BY EATING IT! YOU’RE A DISGRACE TO THE APP STORE!

5. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

   Rigged. I love the app, but it gives you such a rigged rating that I just can’t anymore. These flags are the most weirdest stuff.

6. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

   Confused. I listened to most of the videos and the gentleman always points out the toxic chemicals. When a product is scanned on this APP, it’s looking at the nutrient profile, i.e - calories, fat, fiber, carbs and protein, nothing about chemicals, which is contributing to the ill health of this country. The app seems contradictory to the excellent information that’s talked about in the videos. I’m very confused.

7. ★★★★★scanner broken or app crashes

   Scanner doesn’t scan products. The scanner doesn’t scan products. I’ve been trying to scan food items my entire grocery trip and only one item scanned to state that the app doesn’t scan products high in protein. On to the next app

8. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

   Recommends Poor Products. This app will scan a product. Say it is Poor or bad, and then give recommendations of better alternative products. Twice I have bought products due to the recommendations. I receive the products, scan them, and the Yuka App says they are Bad for one and Poor on another. Thanks for absolutely nothing!

9. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

   Polysorbate 60 is excellent for you???. This LYING app told me the Shea Moisture shampoo and conditioner is an excellent product and I’ve been using it then I read the ingredients and there is polysorbate 60 in it which is literally just a cancer causing chemical that I’ve been scrubbing into my scalp! SHAME ON YOU YUKA. Are you paid out by companies for excellent ratings? Sounds like it! Think of all the things people are using on their children that this app said was good AND ITS POISON. SHAME ON YOU YUKA

10. ★★★★★other

    Frustrating App. This app makes you sign in every time you open it. Half the time after you sign it makes you sign in again. Too frustrating.

11. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Bad advice. Literally gave a food a 0 when the serving size literally had much lower than daily required values of fats, minerals, and sodium. Yet it gives mainstream chips 50+ for many variants when those are the worst of the worst. This app has no context for anything else you’re eating. Most things it says are bad are actually needed in moderation. Update: they responded with “we measure everything based on weight”. Which is completely useless when we eat servings based on real world diets. Not every food needs to be the exact balance for your diet. 0 should be for things you shouldn’t eat, not things you can choose to eat if you balance your diet. Trash app

12. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

    Horrible. I scanned a few products, that it rated low… but it recommended worse products to me. It’s important to know which additives are good and bad, and this app clearly doesn’t know. 100% wouldn’t recommend

13. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

    Mandatory refer to unlock the app. Why do I need to refer the app to a friend in order to unlock 99% of the app. Waste of time.

14. ★★★★★scanner broken or app crashes

    Crashes when I try to share the app with a friend. How else am I going to unlock features in the app?

15. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

    Too many errors. I wanted to like this, but there are so many errors due to the open source database. Users can submit information on products, but it doesn't seem like there is much (if any) oversight to avoid duplicate entries or mistakes. I would even go so far as to speculate companies are submitting their own products and leaving out any "bad" ingredients to boost their rating. I have ordered several items based on the information from this app only to find that an ingredient was left out that I am trying to avoid. When I reach out to customer support, they say that the app is correct. I will not be renewing my subscription. Hopefully another app comes out that is more accurate and reliable.

16. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

    Member price misleading. I really enjoy using Yuka and appreciate the work that goes into the app. One small suggestion: the membership page says “Pay what you want,” but the slider appears to have a minimum payment of $10/year and only allows higher amounts. The wording made me think I could choose any amount, including less than $10. Consider changing it to something like “Choose your membership amount” or “Support Yuka starting at $10/year” to better match the available options. Thanks for all the great work on the app!

17. ★★★★★other

    No user privacy controls. When you upload a barcode, they force their recommendations on your page. If you want to remove a recommendation? You have to delete your entire scan. Had to delete all of my scans so it didn't keep pushing the same garbage.

18. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

    Use your own judgment for food.. Companies apparently pay to have their scores raised making this a not so trustworthy app and plus most (if not all) food in America is bad and processed and as always eat those ingredients in moderation and you wouldn’t have to worry about such health risks.

19. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Horrible. I deleted this app because it’s basically designed to scare you. Most of these long descriptions are just scientific terms for things like baking soda or things that your body can actually digest and the food is completely fine. Now some of the things can be accurate, but 95% of the time it’s not. I was going crazy scanning foods. Don’t believe everything you see on this app just because it has a long scientific name. Many cooking ingredients have scientific names and you just need to search up what they actually are instead of using YUKA to just freak you out because of whatever health risks it says it might have and most of the time is not unless you eat hundreds of pounds of food over and over in large amounts. And the first I have scanned I have eaten before and I’ve turned out completely fine. Now I do like how it recommends healthier foods and items which is great but of the descriptions are just not true at all.

20. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

    Must pay $15 membership. Not free, $15 membership a year to join. deleting app to avoid additional charges

21. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

    Not so awesome. It wasn’t quite what i was hoping for like cause what if I wanted to see if a product i did not have to see if it was good you can’t with out paying a yearly fee. I wanted a trial before I agreed to it.

22. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Extremely misleading. This app completely ignores and hides one of the major micronutrients: carbohydrates. Not only does it happily recommend products full of high fructose corn syrup and modified food starch, but also arbitrarily label "artificial flavoring" as moderate risk with absolutely zero explanation. It has completely unjustified and unexplained scales for fat content, again with no explanation and no discerning between saturated fats and unsaturated fats. DO NOT use this app for nutritional decision making, it will basically encourage you to develop type 2 diabetes.

23. ★★★★★ratings bought by brands

    Yeah no... At first i loved this app, i thought the aesthetic was clean and cute and felt this could be a trustworthy app, i used it for awhile until it started being weird, a few weeks in the score on a cosmetic that was once claimed as bad randomly got a higher score?, i shrugged it off at first and thought maybe the formula changed, but this happened multiple times on different products, so i searched it up and apparently they accept payments from these companies to raise their score?, like what?, i immediately deleted the app when i found this out, do not download.

24. ★★★★★other

    App has not changed or improved for YEARS.. Yuka has still not changed one important issue, and overall has no difference from when I first downloaded this app. I like the simplicity, but there's so much more Yuka can do. You're not able to add items not on Yuka without scanning it, you must have the item in front of you with the barcode to scan and add it. What if I am searching things online, and don't want to buy it yet? Online shopping is huge now. There should be an option to search ingredients without being in person, or upload a photo of the ingredients lists. You can't do that. It's crazy how this hasn't been implemented for years. No features have ever been added and I have been paying membership for 4 years. It's still the simple, basic app from before. I will be finding a different app and I also canceled my subscription.

25. ★★★★★search locked behind paywall

    Need to pay to search anything. Useless when free alternatives exist

26. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Trash app. This app is worse than trash. It does a terrible job of evaluating the healthiness of food items. Its (presumably AI-based) aggregation of scientific literature does not properly evaluate reported food risks. Furthermore, it asks for an email address to begin using the app. The email address I provided immediately began receiving all kinds of spam from websites and mailing lists I’d never signed up for. This app should be banned. The creators of this app are terrible humans.

27. ★★★★★scanner broken or app crashes

    Adding product not rated. Not user friendly

28. ★★★★★scanner broken or app crashes

    No working. The app is out if service

29. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Pseudoscience garbage. This app was made by people who wear tin foil hats and the crunchy moms.

30. ★★★★★scoring methodology is flawed

    Fake. It literally give you fake information about products. Why is another question.