Unwrapped: Food Label Scanner

"Ultra-processed" is not printed on any packet. It is a conclusion you have to
draw from the ingredient list. Unwrapped is an ingredient checker that draws it
for you in about a second — from a barcode, a photo of the label, or a whole
till receipt.

Scan a barcode and you get the NOVA group, a processing intensity out of 100,
and the exact ingredients behind both — each one named, located in the list,
and explained in a sentence. Scan a receipt and the same verdict covers
everything you just bought.

WHY A NUMBER AND NOT JUST A LABEL

Nearly every packaged product on the shelf is NOVA group 4. Being told that
again is not useful when you are standing in an aisle holding two boxes.
Unwrapped scores how industrial a recipe actually is, so you can tell those two
boxes apart.

How is it different from Yuka or Bobby Approved? They tell you whether a product
is ultra-processed. Unwrapped scores how far in it is, names the exact
ingredients that put it there, and scores a whole receipt at once.

WHAT YOU GET

◆ NOVA group 1 to 4, worked out from the ingredient list
◆ Processing intensity out of 100 — the part other scanners do not have
◆ Every marker named: what it is, where it sat in the list, what it does
◆ Regulatory notes with the authority, the year and a link to the source
◆ Less-processed alternatives from the same aisle
◆ Receipt scanner: photograph a till receipt and see how much of the shop was
ultra-processed, line by line
◆ Clean shelves by supermarket: group 1 to 3 products from the chains you
actually shop at, filtered by diet and allergens
◆ Food label scanner: photograph the ingredient list when the barcode is not
in the database
◆ Ask questions about any product you scan
◆ History and saved products

HOW THE SCORE WORKS

A product is group 4 when its ingredient list contains a substance rarely used
in home cooking, or an additive whose only job is to make the product more
appealing — a colour, a flavouring, a sweetener, an emulsifier. This follows a
published method validated at 82.6% sensitivity and 76.8% specificity. Some
categories are ultra-processed by construction, and those are raised too, with
the category named as the reason.

Intensity counts how many markers there are, how heavily each weighs, how high
in the list they sit, how much of the list they make up, and how many different
industrial jobs the recipe needs done.

The whole method is written out inside the app, with its sources.

WHAT IT DOES NOT DO

It reads ingredient lists. It cannot see what is not declared, it cannot
measure a specific packet, and it is not a judgement about your health. Where
the data is thin, it says so instead of guessing.

Product data comes from Open Food Facts, an open database maintained by
volunteers.

PRICING

Unwrapped is a subscription with a 7-day free trial. Cancel before the trial
ends and you pay nothing.

Recent changes:
First release.