Healthy Rating Apps: What’s the Verdict?

Healthy food and wellness product rating apps continue to pop up. The EWG app, Trash Panda, and the Yuka app… there seem to be new ones every other week. Health and wellness-conscious people may enter the crunchy community gradually and organically (pun intended), but other people begin to open their eyes to the toxicity of products only when something goes wrong. Regardless of motivation, both veteran crunchies and newbies alike are turning to apps as an easy way to make better, healthier choices and purchases. 

But can these apps be trusted? 

A One-off, or a Common Occurrence? 

Chronic health issues or diseases can be an eye-opener to the toxic products we use daily, which is exactly what happened with one of my close friends. She was blissfully clueless about the laundry list of toxic ingredients in everyday products. After being diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer, she began to take an aggressive approach to living a toxin-free life. 

It started with her taking a closer look at all the products she and her family had been using. 

She was devastated and took to social media when she started taking a deeper look at the labels herself. Even though the Yuka app had given her the green light when she scanned the barcode on the back of a  “healthier” potato chip option, she was shocked later to see the following, crammed in right after the ingredients list:

WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. 

It’s the type of warning we expect to see on chemical cleaners or home improvement materials - not on our food. It made me wonder how many people would still reach for products like these if marketers were mandated to put labels like this in bold on the front of products.

But how did this food item, a product that marketed itself as a “healthier” alternative to the highly processed potato chip brands, slip past the Yuka app? Are these apps creating a false sense of reliability, particularly for the most vulnerable and new to the non-toxic lifestyle? 

Should we be trusting these apps at all?

Unfortunately, a quick spin through internet forums and some research show that this isn’t a singular experience. Even dieticians have weighed in, stating that there are bound to be inaccuracies within healthy rating scanner apps. 

It turns out, that even our apps aren’t infallible when it comes to determining what food and skincare products are safe for ourselves and our families. 

Alternatives to Healthy Rating Apps

Will healthy scanning apps of the future continue to improve? We sure hope so. Until then, we’ll have to rely on other methods of ensuring the products we use for ourselves and our families are non-toxic.

We’ve outlined a few of our suggestions below. 

Even though humans aren’t unfailing in determining a product’s safety, our judgment is often better than relying on an app.

Only we can know best which ingredients we want our families to use or avoid. Apps can’t typically differentiate what we consider safe, whether that means trying to avoid a long list of chemicals or simply steering clear of any sugar or gluten substances. Healthy lifestyle scanning apps just don’t have the meticulous ability (yet) to filter or target the specific toxic ingredients we want to avoid to protect our families. 

Choosing Tried-and-True Ingredients

Processed foods can be filled with all types of preservatives, which is why we emphasize the use of whole foods and natural ingredients over pre-packaged or highly commercial products. (The list of all-natural ingredients that compose our goat milk skincare products is proof of our commitment!) 

Once a nutrition label begins listing impossible-to-pronounce chemicals and preservatives, we should scrutinize the ingredients further. These types of product compositions should send up red flags. 

Making Our Own Products

Pre-packaged, super-processed foods and large-name commercial brands may make our lives more convenient to pick up at the store, but we can’t always trust their safety. Everything from snacks, cleaning agents, beverages, bug spray, and more can be made with a little bit of research, natural ingredients, and elbow grease; it just takes a mindset shift to prioritize non-toxicity over convenience. 

A Final Take on Healthy Lifestyle Rating Apps

If there’s one unifying theme that is true for all aspects of the toxic-free lifestyle, it’s that there are no shortcuts. As helpful and welcome as it would be to have a precise and unerring scanning app at our fingertips, we’re just not there yet. 

Our suggestion for anyone who still uses these apps is to recognize that they are not 100% accurate. Double-checking the ingredient labels is still going to be your best option. 

Written by Francesca on behalf of Bend Soap