Yuka, a mobile app that scores foods and cosmetics, now counts roughly 4 million users in Canada, close to one in 10 people, according to the company’s U.S. country manager. The platform — introduced to Canadian shoppers in 2020 — is expanding its database and shaping how consumers decide what to buy at the shelf.
Wide product coverage, rapid user growth
The app’s Canadian catalogue includes about 300,000 food items and 150,000 cosmetic products. That inventory, while smaller than Yuka’s global holdings, already covers the vast majority of scanned items in Canadian stores. The company says more than 95 per cent of products users scan in shops are present in the database.
| Metric | Canada |
|---|---|
| Food products in database | ~300,000 |
| Cosmetic products in database | ~150,000 |
| Reported users | ~4,000,000 |
| Monthly new users | ~70,000 |
The firm reports steady expansion, acquiring about 70,000 new Canadian users each month. Executives say growth accelerated after 2022 as shoppers sought clearer information on ingredients and nutrition.
How the app builds its database
Most entries are crowd-sourced: when someone scans an item absent from the platform, the app prompts them to upload photos of the packaging, such as the nutrition facts table and ingredient list for food, or ingredient lists for cosmetics. The software can often compute a score immediately, but submissions are subject to review by an internal moderation team to ensure accuracy.
- User submissions are the primary source of product data.
- Automated scoring provides near-instant results for many items.
- Human moderators verify and quality-control entries.
“There is a growing demand for transparency, simple tools, and independent information that help people make more informed choices in-store.”
Implications for households and industry
For consumers, a widely available scoring tool means nutritional and ingredient information is accessible at the moment decisions are made, potentially changing buying patterns for those concerned about health or product composition. For manufacturers and retailers, the app’s reach implies stronger incentives to reformulate products, rework labelling or highlight positive attributes to maintain favourable scores and visibility.
Because the database is updated continually and largely driven by user activity, product visibility on the platform can evolve quickly — a factor companies will need to monitor. Retailers may also face greater pressure to respond to shopper queries in real time on the sales floor.
As Canadians continue to use tools that rate and compare products while shopping, the interplay between tech platforms, consumer behaviour and supply-chain decisions is likely to deepen, affecting choices in households and strategies across the grocery and personal-care sectors.
