Marketing & Communications Consumer Behavior Change

Yuka Users Can Now Appeal Directly to Brands for Healthier Products

New in-app feature allows consumers to contact brands about harmful ingredients and urge them to reconsider products’ formulation.

Published 1 week ago | About a 3 minute read

Image: Freepik

Yuka, a rapidly growing health app, has unveiled an innovative new feature that empowers its more than 60 million global users to take their advocacy for healthier products to the next level. With this feature, Yuka now allows users to directly challenge food and personal-care brands that use hazardous additives by sending an email to customer service teams or posting on X to encourage brands to reformulate their products.

Yuka enables users to instantly access detailed health ratings and ingredient analyses by scanning the barcodes of food and cosmetics products — helping consumers make more informed and conscious choices by identifying hazardous substances and offering safer alternatives.

Already amassing over 16 million US users following its recent expansion to the US, Yuka remains committed to driving greater transparency in the food and cosmetics industries — empowering consumers to make healthier and more informed choices that prioritize their wellbeing with every purchase. The app is 100 percent independently funded — ensuring that the information provided is free from any brand or manufacturer influence and solely focused on consumer wellbeing.

How it works

When Yuka users scan a product containing one or more hazardous additives flagged with Yuka’s red label, users can click the “Call-out the Brand” button to contact a brand directly by email or posting on X requesting the removal of these ingredients.

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Call out by email: This selection will generate a prefilled email addressed to the brand’s customer service team, outlining the risks associated with the additives in their product and urging them to consider a reformulation. Users can further personalize the message or leave it as is for quick, impactful action.
Call out on X: When a user selects this option, Yuka generates a pre-filled post that includes the hashtag #NotInMyProduct — allowing users to share their concerns with a wider audience and encourage community engagement.

“We are not just passive consumers; we can be true agents of change, and we have the right to demand that brands prioritize our health over their financial interests,” said Yuka co-founder Julie Chapon. "This new feature empowers users to go beyond avoiding harmful ingredients and actively drive the change they want to see in the marketplace."

Yuka has already contributed to progress in this area. In a 2024 impact study conducted in the US, 94 percent of survey respondents have stopped purchasing products flagged with hazardous additives since they began using Yuka. Whether it’s sweeteners that disrupt our microbiome, emulsifiers that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, food dyes suspected of promoting hyperactivity in children, or preservatives such as nitrites that are linked to higher cancer risk, it’s time for these health-threatening additives to be permanently banned from our food supply.

In Europe, Yuka has already pushed many manufacturers to improve their products. For example, following pressure from consumers and Yuka users, French supermarket chain Intermarché removed 142 controversial additives from 900 of its products. Now, Yuka is on a mission to accelerate this mission, particularly in the US market where food regulations are less stringent — and likely to become even less so. With this new feature, Yuka is empowering consumers to remind brands to continue to drive lasting changes that prioritize health — regardless of the legislative landscape.