We found this handy and slightly addictive app called Yuka, available both on Android devices and iPhone.

If you find the ingredient lists on food and cosmetic products long, complicated and confusing, then downloading Yuka is really worthwhile, especially since it tells you what is good/not so good about the products you are buying.  All you need to do is to have your mobile phone available during your shopping trips.

Simply open up the Yuka app, scan the barcode of your item and it will give the product a score out of 100, with 100 being the best.  It then breaks down the ingredients using a traffic light system, with information about the potential risks of each ingredient. For instance, our trusty office snacks of Chocolate Hobnobs are not so good, and the app actually labels them as ‘bad’, scoring a mere 24/100, too fatty, too sweet, too calorific etc etc … but it does give you healthy alternatives to try, which is also very convenient.