NutrixeYuka is on millions of phones, and deservedly so: it taught millions of people to turn a packet over and read the label. So when you become coeliac, the reflex is natural: “I’ll scan it with Yuka”. That reflex can send you to hospital, and it is not Yuka’s fault — it is that Yuka does not answer your question.
What Yuka does very well
You scan a product, Yuka gives it a score out of 100. That score combines nutritional quality (the Nutri-Score: sugars, salt, fats, calories), the presence of additives deemed risky, and organic status. It suggests better-rated alternatives. It does the same for cosmetics.
Product data comes from Open Food Facts, the open database maintained by its users — the same one Nutrixe uses. On that point, both apps read the same label.
What Yuka does not do
Yuka answers “is this product good?”. It does not answer “is this product safe for me?”. An apple compote will score 100/100; an industrial gluten-free bread, loaded with starches and sugars, will score poorly. For a coeliac, though, the bread is the right answer and the compote is the one raising a question — about traces.
Concretely, on gluten:
- The gluten alert is a Premium feature. In the free version, nothing flags wheat, barley or rye. You need to activate “food preferences”, reserved for the subscription.
- Trace statements are not read. Yuka writes it in its help centre: food preferences do not take into account the “may contain traces of…” statements at the end of the list. Yet that is precisely where a coeliac’s safety is decided: a product with no gluten ingredient, but made on a line that handles it, is a real risk.
- Derivatives are not the point. Starch of unspecified origin, malt, wheat glucose syrup, oats outside a certified supply chain: all cases where “no wheat in the list” does not mean “no risk”. Yuka is not designed to tell them apart, and does not claim to.
Yuka’s help page ends, in fact, with the only sentence that counts: for any allergy or intolerance, refer to the label.
What Nutrixe does instead
Nutrixe scans the same barcode, reads the same ingredient list, and reads it again the way a coeliac would: wheat, barley, rye and all their names (spelt, kamut, bulgur, malt, seitan…), starch of unspecified origin, oats outside a certified supply chain, “traces” and “may contain” statements.
The result is never “gluten-free ✅”. It is a nuanced verdict: what the list contains, what it leaves uncertain, and the sentence that always comes back — the manufacturer can change the recipe, check the label. When the product is unknown to the database, the app says so and offers to send the label rather than make something up.
The scanner is free, unlimited, with no account and no ads. Nutrixe does not rate nutritional quality: that is not its question.
Head to head
| Yuka | Nutrixe | |
|---|---|---|
| The question asked | is this product good for health? | is this product safe for a coeliac? |
| Score out of 100, Nutri-Score, additives | yes | no |
| Gluten alert | Premium | free, it is the core of the app |
| “Traces” statements | not taken into account | read and flagged |
| Derivatives (starch, malt, oats) | out of scope | identified |
| Verdict | a score | what we know, what remains uncertain |
| Data source | Open Food Facts | Open Food Facts |
| Restaurant map | no | yes, 3,274 verified places |
| Account, ads | account, no ads | neither |
Can you keep both?
Yes, and many do. Yuka to choose, between two gluten-free biscuits, the one with less sugar; Nutrixe to know whether either carries a trace risk. Both questions are legitimate. Just do not ask one to answer the other.
What we do not know
The details of Yuka’s rules are not public beyond its online help, and its features evolve. What we describe is the state as of 5 September 2026. If Yuka changes, this page will change too — tell us.
