Food Barcode Scanner (Nutrition, Ingredients & Additives)
Scan a pack and see what Open Food Facts knows about it — only the barcode is sent.
Look up a product
The 8, 12 or 13 digits under the bars. Only this number is sent, to Open Food Facts.
Nutrition facts
The entry has no nutrition facts yet. Read them from the pack (see below).
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per serving |
|---|
Allergens
Additives
None listed in the entry.
Ingredients
Product data: Open Food Facts contributors, under the Open Database License. Photo: Open Food Facts contributors, CC BY-SA. The data are entered by volunteers and can be incomplete or out of date: check the pack, especially for allergens.
Not in Open Food Facts yet
Reading the label yourself
- Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight in the EU and in India, so the first ones make up most of the food.
- Allergens: in the EU the 14 major allergens are emphasised in the ingredients list, in bold for example; in India they are declared as “Contains …”, and “May contain …” warns of cross-contamination.
- Nutrition: EU labels give energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt per 100 g or 100 ml, so products compare directly. US labels give amounts per serving, and a % Daily Value of 5 % or less is low, 20 % or more high.
- Additives are written as their category and a name or number — “preservative: E 211” or “acidity regulator (INS 330)”: paste the list into the Food Additive Checker.
- Vegetarian or not: packaged food in India carries a green dot in a green square (vegetarian) or a brown triangle in a brown square (non-vegetarian).
- Dates: “use by” is about safety and “best before” about quality — see the Food Storage & Shelf Life Guide.
Sources: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, FSSAI Labelling and Display Regulations, FDA: the Nutrition Facts label.
Compare
Add a second product to see the two side by side, per 100 g or ml.
| Per 100 g or ml |
|---|
Your scan history
Products you look up appear here, with their scores, so you can open or compare them again without a new look-up.
For general information only, not medical advice. Consult a qualified health professional for advice about your situation.
How this tool is checked
- Sources
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This guide cites 5 sources, among them:
- Tests
- 22 automated tests check its results.
- Found an error?
- Report a problem or write to support@mysmartcopilot.com, with what you entered and the result you expected.
About the Food Barcode Scanner (Nutrition, Ingredients & Additives)
Point your camera at a packaged food’s barcode — or type the number under the bars — and see the product as Open Food Facts records it: the nutrition facts per 100 g or 100 ml and per serving, the ingredients, the allergens and “may contain” traces, the additives (each linked to the Food Additive Checker), the Nutri-Score where it can be computed and the NOVA processing group. The card also says how complete the entry is, because Open Food Facts is a free, open database that volunteers fill in.
Tick your preferences — vegetarian, vegan, palm-oil free, gluten-free as labelled — and every product shows how it stands against them. Put two products side by side, and keep a history of what you scanned in this browser, with no account. Only the barcode number is sent, to Open Food Facts; the camera picture is read on your device. There are no verdicts of our own: only the scores Open Food Facts publishes and what the pack says.
How to use it
- Press Scan with the camera and hold the barcode flat in the picture, or Read a photo of the barcode, or type the 8, 12 or 13 digits under the bars and press Look up. The check digit is tested as you type, so a mistyped number is caught before it is sent.
- Read the card: name, brand and quantity, the Nutri-Score and NOVA group with what they mean, the nutrition table, allergens, additives and ingredients. Open an additive for its function and status.
- Tick My preferences to see, for every product, whether it is vegetarian, vegan, palm-oil free or labelled gluten-free — or whether that is not known yet.
- Press Add to compare on two products to see them side by side, per 100 g or ml. Your scan history keeps the products you looked up on this device; open them again without a new look-up, filter them by your preferences or download them as CSV.
- If a product is not in Open Food Facts, read the label yourself with the short guide shown, or add the product to Open Food Facts.
Examples
5449000000996
Coca-Cola · COCA-COLA SERVICES SA/NV · 330 ml · per 100 ml: 180 kJ / 42 kcal, sugars 10.6 g, fat 0 g, salt 0 g · Nutri-Score E · NOVA group 4 (ultra-processed food and drink products) · additives E 150d (sulphite ammonia caramel), E 338 (phosphoric acid) · vegetarian: yes; vegan: maybe; no palm oil
Values as the Open Food Facts entry gave them when this example was written; entries change as volunteers edit them.
5449000000995
The last digit should be 6, not 5, for the digits before it, so one digit is probably mistyped or two are swapped.
2001234000000
A restricted circulation number: the kind a shop prints for its own weighed products, so a public database will rarely know it.
Where the information comes from
Everything about a product comes from Open Food Facts, a collaborative, open database of food products from around the world: its data are available under the Open Database License and its photos under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. Volunteers and producers add products from their packs, so an entry can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and the card says how complete it is. For allergies, always read the pack.
The page asks Open Food Facts’ product API for one barcode at a time and stays under its limit of 15 product reads a minute; look-ups are paced a little below that.
What the Nutri-Score is
The Nutri-Score is a logo that grades the nutritional quality of a food from A to E. It is worked out from the nutrition facts: energy, saturated fat, sugars and salt count against a food, and its share of fruit, vegetables and nuts, its fibre and its protein count in its favour (Open Food Facts: Nutri-Score; the detailed formula is published by Santé publique France). Many packs do not carry it.
The grade shown here is the one Open Food Facts computes from the entry’s nutrition facts and category, with the updated algorithm where it uses it, so it can differ from a Nutri-Score printed on the pack. With no nutrition facts or category, there is no grade; for some kinds of product Open Food Facts does not compute one at all.
What the NOVA group is
NOVA sorts foods by how processed they are, in four groups: 1 unprocessed or minimally processed foods, 2 processed culinary ingredients, 3 processed foods and 4 ultra-processed food and drink products (Monteiro et al., Public Health Nutrition). Open Food Facts estimates the group from the ingredients and the category — group 4 markers include colours, emulsifiers and sweeteners — and calls its method still experimental. Without an ingredients list there is no group.
Preferences, allergens and traces
- Vegetarian and vegan: Open Food Facts works these out from the ingredients list and marks a product yes, no, maybe (an ingredient can be of animal origin) or not known. A “vegan” or “vegetarian” label on the entry counts as yes.
- Palm-oil free: worked out the same way, from the ingredients.
- Gluten-free (as labelled): yes only when the entry records a gluten-free label; “contains” when gluten is among the allergens; “may contain” when it is among the traces.
- Allergens are the ones the entry lists; may contain shows its traces. In the EU the 14 major allergens are emphasised in the ingredients list, and in India allergens are declared after “Contains”.
Your history and privacy
The history (up to 50 products, with what the card showed) and your preferences are kept in this browser’s storage, under the key tv-food-barcode-scanner-v1, and never sent anywhere. Untick Keep a history on this device to keep nothing, or press Clear. Opening a product from the history needs no new look-up; only its photo is fetched again from Open Food Facts.
Limitations
- Open Food Facts is a volunteer database: many products, especially local or new ones, are missing, and an entry can be incomplete or out of date. Read the pack for allergens and anything that matters to your health.
- The Nutri-Score and NOVA group are Open Food Facts’ computations from the entry, not official ratings of the product.
- Food barcodes only: EAN-13, UPC-A, EAN-8 and UPC-E. In-store codes for weighed products are not in public databases.
- Scanning needs a camera (or a clear photo); a barcode on a curved, shiny or crumpled pack can need several tries or the typed number.
- Values are shown as the entry gives them, rounded for display; per-serving values appear only where the entry has them.
Privacy
Sends data to online services
Only the barcode number you look up is sent, to Open Food Facts, without cookies or a referrer; the product photo comes from Open Food Facts’ image server. Camera pictures and photos of barcodes are read on your device and never sent. Your history and preferences stay in this browser until you clear them.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the product information come from?
From Open Food Facts, a free and open database of food products that volunteers and producers fill in from the packs. The card links to the product’s Open Food Facts page, and says how complete the entry is.
What does the scanner send?
Only the barcode number, to Open Food Facts, to fetch that product. The camera picture or photo is read on your device. Your history and preferences are kept in this browser and never sent.
Why is my product not found?
Open Food Facts does not have it yet — it is a volunteer database, so local and new products are often missing. In-store codes for weighed food (starting with 2) are never in it. The page then shows how to read the label yourself, and you can add the product to Open Food Facts.
Is the Nutri-Score shown the official one?
It is the grade Open Food Facts computes from the entry’s nutrition facts and category. A Nutri-Score printed on the pack by the maker can differ, for example when the entry is incomplete or the recipe has changed.
What does NOVA group 4 mean?
Ultra-processed food and drink products, the fourth of NOVA’s groups. Open Food Facts estimates it from the ingredients and the category, for example when the ingredients include colours, emulsifiers or sweeteners; it calls the method experimental.
Can I rely on it for a food allergy?
No: always read the pack. The allergens and traces come from the entry, which may be incomplete or older than the pack in your hand.