Yuka is not a gluten-free app: it is a nutrition scanner, whose gluten alert is reserved for Premium and does not take “traces” statements into account, according to its own help centre. For a celiac, the alternative is a scanner that also reads contamination risks, such as Fig or Spoonful in the United States or the Coeliac UK app in the United Kingdom; Open Food Facts remains the free option.

Transparency: Nutrixe, which publishes this article, has its own scanner. It is not compared with the others on an equal footing; it is presented separately, in a clearly marked section.

Method

Survey carried out in October 2026 on Yuka’s help centre, its App Store listing, and the App Store listing and website of each alternative (list at the end of the article). We describe what publishers state publicly; what they do not say is marked “not stated”.

What Yuka does

You scan a product, Yuka gives it a score out of 100: 60% nutritional quality (based on the Nutri-Score), 30% additives, 10% organic. It suggests better-scored products. It does the same for cosmetics.

It does this well, without ads, in six languages including English. It has taught many people to turn a pack over and read the label.

What it doesn’t do for a celiac

  • The gluten alert is paid. It is part of the Premium food preferences, along with search, offline mode and unlimited history. On the US App Store, the Premium in-app purchases range from $10 to $20.
  • Traces are not read. Yuka’s help centre says so: food preferences do not take into account traces listed at the end of the list, with the example “may contain traces of wheat”. Yet a product with no wheat in its recipe but made on a line that handles it is a real risk.
  • The score says nothing about gluten. An industrial gluten-free bread may score poorly, a fruit purée very well: the score judges nutrition, not compatibility with celiac disease.
  • Yuka itself refers you to the label in case of allergy or special diet, even with food preferences turned on.

None of this is a hidden flaw: Yuka says it. It is simply a different question.

The alternatives

1. Fig

A scanner designed for dietary restrictions: you choose your diet among more than 2,800 options, gluten-free included, and the app says whether the product fits. According to its publisher, it also flags ingredients exposed to cross-contamination. Limited free version; the Fig+ subscription unlocks unlimited scans and the restaurant section. English only, published in the United States; the publisher declares using location to track the user.

2. Spoonful

One profile, one scan, one verdict. The publisher says it detects visible and hidden gluten, including contact risks such as oats, with content reviewed by celiac dietitians. “Unlimited” subscription at $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. English only.

3. Live Well Gluten Free (Coeliac UK)

The British association’s app: a scanner covering more than 185,000 products whose suitability for a gluten-free diet is recorded by the association, and around 3,000 accredited venues. Members only, designed for the United Kingdom.

4. Open Food Facts

The app of the collaborative product database. Free, no account needed to scan, in English and more than 120 languages. It offers alerts on 14 allergen families, gluten included, and shows the raw list: interpreting starches, oats and trace statements is up to you. It warns itself that its data may be incomplete or out of date.

The table

✓ yes · ✓ € yes, as a paid option · ✗ no · “limited”: free with limits · – not stated by the publisher. Nutrixe, our app, is in the last column, outside the ranking. “Tracking”: what the publisher declares on the App Store, not verified by Apple.

Yuka Fig Spoonful Coeliac UK Open Food Facts Nutrixe
Gluten alert ✓ € ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Reads traces (“may contain”) ✗ – – – – ✓
Nutrition score ✓ – ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗
Free gluten alert ✗ limited limited ✗ ✓ ✓
Available in English ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Offline ✓ € – – – – ✓ €
No account – – – ✗ ✓ ✓
No ads ✓ – – – – ✓
No declared tracking ✓ ✗ ✓ – ✓ ✓

Where Nutrixe fits

Nutrixe is our app. Its scanner does only one thing: read an ingredient list from the point of view of a person with celiac disease. It starts from Open Food Facts data and rereads the list in six languages: wheat, barley, rye and their other names (spelt, kamut, malt, bulgur, seitan…), “traces” and “may contain” statements, oats classed as a trace risk unless the product is certified, starch of unspecified origin flagged as uncertain. It distinguishes a product certified by a third-party body from a mere manufacturer’s claim.

The scanner is free and unlimited, with no account, no ads, no tracking, in six languages including English. The subscription adds offline use, travel lists, history and themes. The app also has a map of more than 3,400 verified restaurants in 33 countries.

What it does not do: no nutrition score or additive analysis, which Yuka does; no allergies other than gluten; it depends on a collaborative database that can be incomplete or lag behind a recipe. Many keep Yuka to choose the less sugary of two products, and a gluten-free scanner to know whether they carry a risk. The detailed head-to-head · the app.

What no scanner replaces

The label in your hand. A manufacturer can change its recipe without the database following; the scanner saves you time, the label has the final word.

To go further: which scanner for a celiac · all gluten-free apps compared · which map to find a restaurant.

As of October 2026. Something inaccurate? Report it.

Sources