Know what's
actually in it.
Scan a barcode or photograph the ingredient list. We'll tell you what's worth knowing — nothing else.
Informational only — not medical advice. Learn more
Point at a barcode
Starting camera…
Photograph the ingredient list
Fill the frame with just the ingredients text. Good light and a flat label work best.
Reading label…
Looking it up…
Couldn't find that product.
It may not be in Open Food Facts yet. Try photographing the ingredient list instead.
About
IngredientInfoBuddy scans a food or drink product and surfaces what's genuinely worth knowing about its ingredients — not an exhaustive list of trivia.
Red, yellow, green
Every flag is colored so you can tell how serious it is at a glance, not just that it exists:
- Red — high concern. A real food-safety regulator found something specific: an EFSA finding that some age groups exceed the safe intake level, or a mandatory EU warning label.
- Yellow — worth noting. A milder or more provisional flag: a moderate EFSA finding, an ANSES "warrants further review" listing, an allergen (relevant if it applies to you), or ultra-processed (NOVA group 4).
- Green — good sign. Nothing was flagged, or the product is NOVA group 1 (unprocessed/minimally processed).
Important: yellow doesn't mean "safe" and red doesn't mean "avoid this." It's a severity signal for how strong the underlying finding is, not a verdict on whether you personally should eat it — that depends on things this app doesn't know, like how much of it you eat and your own health situation.
What we flag, and why
- Allergens — always shown when declared. Yellow, not red: an allergen isn't dangerous to everyone, only to people allergic to it.
- Ultra-processed (NOVA group 4) — a food-processing classification, shown as context. Yellow, not red: NOVA is legitimate but genuinely contested in the research (a 2025 Harvard cohort study found the processing tier alone predicts less than assumed), and it isn't a regulatory finding the way an EFSA risk evaluation is.
- Additives — flagged only when a real regulator has said something about them: an EFSA overexposure-risk finding, an ANSES additive-of-interest listing, or (for six specific dyes) a mandatory EU child-attention warning label. Additives with no such flag aren't shown — no flag isn't "safe," it just means we found no specific regulatory concern to report.
What we deliberately don't do
We don't claim that specific ingredient combinations are dangerous. Outside one narrow, well-documented case (the EU's mandatory warning on six food dyes), there's no reputable source backing general "these ingredients together are risky" claims for food — so we don't make them.
Data sources
Product and ingredient data from Open Food Facts (ODbL). Additive risk flags from Open Food Facts' EFSA/ANSES-sourced additive taxonomy. Not all US products are in the database yet.
Not medical advice
This app provides general information for informational purposes only. It is not medical, dietary, or health advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian about your specific situation, especially for allergies.
Photo credits
Hero photo: Bill Branson / National Cancer Institute (public domain). Grocery shelf photo: Philrj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).