Yuka vs Bobby Approved: a score or a verdict
These are the two most-rated barcode food scanners on the US App Store, and they disagree all the time. Not because one is wrong. They ask different questions. Yuka asks how good the label is on nutrition, additives and organic status, and answers with a number. Bobby Approved asks whether the ingredient list contains anything on Bobby Parrish's list, and answers yes or no.
Below: the spec sheet, eight rounds with a winner each, and which to install for the way you shop. We make a different kind of scanner (Flammy, for inflammation), so neither app here is ours and every fact comes from their own listings.
Listings checked October 7, 2026.
The spec sheet
| Yuka | Bobby Approved | |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Score 0 to 100 | Approved or not approved |
| How it decides | 60% Nutri-Score nutrition, 30% additives, 10% organic. One high-risk additive caps it at 49 | Bobby Parrish's list of 100+ flagged ingredients. Any flagged ingredient fails the product |
| What it flags | Additives by risk level; sugar, salt, saturated fat, calories | Natural and artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, dyes, seed oils, preservatives, chemical additives |
| Database | 4 million food + 2 million cosmetic products | Not stated. Browse by store |
| Cosmetics | Yes | No, food only |
| Price | Free scanning. Premium $10 to $20 a year | Free |
| App Store rating | 4.8 (100K ratings) | 4.9 (163K ratings) |
| Size | 215 MB | 38 MB |
| Behind it | Yuca, a French company. No ads, no brand money | Bobby Parrish (FlavCity, 12M+ followers) |
| On the store since | January 2017 | June 2021 |
Eight rounds
Final count: Yuka 4, Bobby Approved 4. The count matters less than which rounds you care about.
Clarity of the answer
Bobby ApprovedPass or fail needs no interpretation. A Yuka 52 leaves you wondering whether 52 is fine.
Nuance
YukaYuka separates a product with one mild additive from one built on sugar and dyes. Bobby fails both.
Transparency of method
YukaYuka publishes its weights and its additive ratings. Bobby's list is viewable, but the pass/fail line is one person's rules.
Nutrition (sugar, salt, fat)
Yuka60% of the Yuka score is nutrition. Bobby's rules are about ingredients, so a sugary product with clean ingredients can pass.
Ingredient quality
Bobby ApprovedBobby flags seed oils and natural flavors. Yuka's formula has no rule for either.
Shopping help
Bobby ApprovedBrowse approved products by store before you go. Yuka works best once you are holding the product.
Price
Bobby ApprovedFree. Yuka is free to scan, but search, offline mode and history are premium.
Scope
YukaCosmetics, plus a far larger stated database. Bobby is food only.
Why the same product gets opposite answers
Three product types where the apps predictably split, and why:
| Product type | Yuka | Bobby Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Low-sugar snack made with canola oil and natural flavors | Can score well: decent nutrition, no flagged additive | Fails: seed oil and natural flavors are both on the list |
| Organic granola with lots of cane sugar | Nutrition pulls it down, organic bonus pushes it up | Depends on the rest of the label: cane sugar is not an artificial sweetener or a dye |
| Aged cheese, nut butter, olive oil | Often middling: fat and calories per 100 g | Passes if the ingredient list is short and clean |
If you notice yourself trusting whichever app gives the answer you wanted, that is the sign to pick one rule set and stick to it. For how Yuka's math produces these results, our Yuka alternatives guide breaks down the formula.
Free · iOS & Android
Neither app scans a plate. Flammy does.
Photograph any food or meal, no barcode, and get a 1 to 10 inflammation score with the ingredients behind it. Free on iOS and Android.
What each app looks at first, aisle by aisle
Based on each app's published rules, this is where the verdict usually comes from in the categories people scan most.
| Aisle | Yuka mostly reacts to | Bobby mostly reacts to |
|---|---|---|
| Bread | Fiber, salt, added sugar, emulsifiers | Seed oils, preservatives, added flavors |
| Breakfast cereal | Sugar per 100 g, additives | Dyes, artificial flavors, seed oils |
| Yogurt | Sugar, saturated fat, thickeners | Fake sugars, natural flavors, preservatives |
| Chips and crackers | Salt, fat, calories per 100 g | The frying oil |
| Salad dressing | Fat and salt per 100 g | Seed oil base (soybean, canola) |
| Protein bars | Sugar, additives | Fake sugars, flavors, seed oils |
The pattern: Yuka reads the nutrition panel first, Bobby reads the ingredient list first. If you shop by ingredient list already, Bobby will mostly confirm what you see. If you never look at nutrition panels, Yuka adds information you were not getting.
Which one to install
| You want a fast yes/no in the aisle | Bobby Approved |
| You avoid seed oils, dyes and artificial sweeteners | Bobby Approved |
| You compare two similar products and want a ranking | Yuka |
| You also scan shampoo, sunscreen or makeup | Yuka |
| You watch sugar and salt more than ingredient lists | Yuka |
| You want both | Both are free to scan, so running both costs nothing. |
| You care about inflammation, or most of your food has no barcode | Neither. A photo scanner like Flammy |
What both of them miss
Both are barcode scanners. Produce, fish from the counter, restaurant meals and home cooking do not exist for either app, and on a whole-food diet that is most of what you eat.
And neither scores inflammation. Bobby comes closest by flagging seed oils, but a product with no flagged ingredients can still be built on refined flour and sugar, two of the things anti-inflammatory guidelines cut first. If that is the question you are scanning for, start with the inflammatory foods to avoid and the vegetable oil vs olive oil comparison.
Yuka vs Bobby Approved: common questions
Is Yuka or Bobby Approved better?
Bobby Approved if you want a simple yes or no based on ingredient quality (seed oils, flavors, dyes) and it is free. Yuka if you want a graded score that weighs nutrition, additives and organic status, or if you also scan cosmetics. Both are free to scan, so you can use Bobby Approved for the quick verdict and Yuka to compare two similar products.
Is Bobby Approved free?
Yes. The App Store listing describes it as a free food scanner app, and we found no paid tier.
Why does Bobby Approved reject products Yuka rates well?
Different rules. Yuka's score is mostly nutrition and additives; it has no penalty for seed oils or natural flavors. Bobby Approved fails any product with an ingredient on its list of 100+, which includes both. A product with canola oil and natural flavors can score well on Yuka and fail on Bobby.
Why does Yuka score some Bobby Approved products low?
Because Yuka counts sugar, salt, saturated fat and calories per 100 g. A product made with clean ingredients but lots of sugar, or a high-fat product like nut butter or cheese, can pass Bobby's ingredient check and still score low on Yuka's nutrition side.
Does either app tell you if a food is inflammatory?
Not directly. Bobby flags seed oils, which it calls inflammatory, but neither app scores inflammatory impact, and neither works on food without a barcode. Flammy scores any food or meal from a photo on a 1 to 10 inflammation scale.
Is Yuka accurate?
It accurately applies its own published formula to the label. The limits are in what the formula measures: it ignores portion size and says nothing about inflammation or fresh food. Our Yuka accuracy guide goes through the five places the score misleads.
Where to go from here
Accuracy
Is Yuka accurate?
The five places the score misleads.
Alternatives
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7 alternatives, sorted by what Yuka cannot do.
The full list
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8 apps compared by what they scan and what they score.
Review
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The $39.99-a-month anti-inflammatory app, priced out.
Scan a food in 2 seconds. Know if it's healing or hurting you.
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