Company: Yuka
Founder: Julie Chapon
Website: https://yuka.io/en/
About Yuka
Yuka was founded in France in 2017 by Julie Chapon, Benoit Martin, and Francois Martin. The idea started small: Benoit was trying to understand what was actually in the food he was buying for his children, and found that ingredient lists and nutrition labels were nearly impossible to decode. The three co-founders built a simple barcode scanner that could translate that complexity into a clear, color-coded score.
The biggest challenge Yuka faced was structural, not technical. Most food and cosmetic rating tools rely on funding from the very brands they evaluate, through advertising, data partnerships, or sponsored placements. Yuka chose a different path: no ads, no brand funding, no sale of user data. The only revenue comes from a low-cost premium subscription. That independence meant slower, harder growth, since there was no marketing budget behind the app at launch.
In the United States specifically, adoption has been entirely organic, driven by word of mouth among people who found the app useful and shared it with friends and family. That grassroots growth has translated into real scale. Yuka now counts 25 million users in the United States, part of a global user base of more than 80 million. Every one of those users represents someone actively seeking clearer information about what they are eating and putting on their skin, at a moment when trust in food labelling and industry claims is low.
The impact on the US ecosystem goes beyond the app itself. The company built an in-house scientific team that evaluates additives, ingredients, and nutritional quality using peer-reviewed research and recognised toxicology frameworks. That work has fed into policy-relevant research: Yuka partnered with Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic on a report examining how price and ingredient quality intersect in the US food supply, with recommendations aimed at modernising food additive oversight and reducing exposure to ultra-processed foods.
Yuka has also given US consumers a direct, practical way to engage with the food and cosmetics industry, something that used to require expertise most people simply do not have. It does this without telling anyone what to buy or ban. For nearly every product with a poor rating, Yuka suggests a better-rated alternative in the same category, favouring informed choice over restriction. Yuka remains an independent, mission-driven company. It has no outside investors dictating its priorities, and it does not compete for market share against other transparency tools. Its goal in the US, as everywhere else, is simple: help people understand what they are consuming, and use that clarity to push the market toward healthier products.
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