ScanGredients

ScanGredients is an iPhone and iPad app from No Worries! Lifestyle, LLC that reads the ingredient list on food packaging and explains what is in it. It is made for the grocery aisle, for careful label readers and for people shopping for someone else. ScanGredients highlights the allergen words a user watches for, scores the product, and explains each ingredient in plain language.

A user photographs the ingredient list with the camera, adding up to six photos when the list wraps around the box. ScanGredients uses AI to read the label, and the user checks the recognized text and corrects anything that looks wrong before tapping Check ingredients, so no check is used up until then. The result arrives in seconds, with allergen words first, a score from 1 to 5, a processing level and notes on every ingredient.

Users choose the allergens they watch for, such as milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, sesame, fish and shellfish, and ScanGredients highlights those words in the label text while keeping "may contain" statements separate. Plain-language notes cover additives, sweeteners, oils and emulsifiers, and a processing level from whole food to ultra-processed follows the NOVA classification. My Scans keeps every checked label, and an Ingredients library holds thousands of searchable ingredients.

Allergen word highlights are free and the first full check is free; ScanGredients Plus adds unlimited checks and the full ingredient library for 3,99 USD a month or 29,99 USD a year, with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. No account is needed. The app requires iOS 16.0 or later, also runs on Macs with Apple M1 and Apple Vision, and is in English. It gives general food information, not medical or allergy advice.

Use cases

• Checking food labels for allergens in the grocery aisle
• Shopping for a family member or friend with allergies
• Understanding additives, sweeteners, oils and emulsifiers on a label
• Judging how processed a packaged food is
• Looking up a single ingredient in the library