How it works
Should I Buy It? · Free, no account, runs in your browser
Search for a food or scan a barcode, and the app shows its Nutrition Facts label and a verdict: does it fit your goals? The verdict uses the calories, protein, fiber and limits you set on the Goals tab. Until you set them, it uses standard ones: 2,000 calories, 100 g protein, 28 g fiber, and at most 20 g saturated fat, 2,300 mg sodium and 50 g added sugar a day.
Allergen and diet flags help, but they can miss things. Add your allergies or a diet (gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan) under Goals and every food gets a flag: “Contains”, “May contain”, “Couldn't check” (no ingredient list on file) or “None of your allergens found”. It's checked against Open Food Facts' allergen and traces lists, the label's ingredients and “Contains” line, the food's name, and, for built-in foods, what a typical recipe has. It never says a food is safe: ingredient lists can be wrong or out of date, and cross-contact isn't always listed, so read the package. The flag sits beside the verdict and doesn't change it. A “Get it” means the nutrition fits your goals, not that the food is safe for you.
It doesn't check medical needs. If you have a condition that affects what you eat (diabetes, kidney disease, pregnancy and others), follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice. This is general nutrition guidance, not medical advice.
How a verdict is decided
Each serving gets points for what helps and loses points for what works against your goals. Every point shows up as a reason under Why, and the What decided it chart shows how they add up.
What adds points
- Protein for the calories: +1 when at least 20% of the calories come from protein, +2 at 40% (and at least 5 g).
- Fiber: +2 at 2.8 g or more a serving (10% of the Daily Value, the FDA's “good source” bar).
- Whole fruit, vegetables and whole grains: +2.
- Unsaturated fats (nuts, avocado, olive oil, fatty fish) and lots of food for very few calories: small bonuses.
What takes points away
- Saturated fat and added sugar: −1 when one serving is 15% of your daily limit, −2 at 30%.
- Sodium: −1 at 20% of your daily limit, −2 at 35%.
- Treats (desserts, candy, fried snacks): −1. Processed meat (bacon, deli meat, hot dogs): −2.
- Empty calories: 100 calories or more with little protein or fiber. A big share of your day (20% of your calories) with little protein: −1.
A few safeguards
- Impossible numbers are left out. Crowd-sourced records are sometimes typed in wrong. Sodium heavier than 40% of the serving, saturated or trans fat above total fat, fiber or sugars above total carbs, added sugar above total sugars, or cholesterol in a plant-based drink is shown as “—” and named on the card. When fat, carbs and protein don't add up to the calories, the card says so.
- Missing numbers stay unknown, not zero. A product with no saturated-fat figure can't earn “Get it” just because the number is missing.
- Meals on the Plate tab are judged against a third of your day. A meal that uses up a third of the day's saturated fat, sodium or added sugar can't be “Get it”.
- The verdict is always for one standard serving. The servings buttons change the label and the bars, not the verdict.
Where the numbers come from
| Data | Source | License | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in foods (480+) | Typical values written for this app and spot-checked against USDA FoodData Central. Brands vary; the package label wins. | USDA data is public domain | Oct 2026 |
| Food search and packaged products | USDA FoodData Central, looked up live | Public domain (CC0) | Live |
| Scanned barcodes | Open Food Facts, a crowd-sourced database by its contributors. It can be incomplete or out of date. | ODbL 1.0 (database), DbCL (contents) | Live |
| Additive names and notes | Open Food Facts additive taxonomy. Notes written for this app link the regulator review or study each one is based on. | ODbL 1.0 | Oct 2026 |
| Typical prices | BLS Average Price Data (South region where available) and USDA ERS fruit and vegetable prices | Public domain | Sep 2026 |
| Label photos | Read on your device with Tesseract.js, then checked by you. Photos aren't uploaded. | Tesseract: Apache-2.0 | When you read one |
| Walmart, Sam's Club and Costco products (extension; phone bookmark for Walmart and Sam's Club) | The Nutrition Facts, barcode and price on the product page you're looking at, read in your browser. Costco pages show no Nutrition Facts as text, so their barcode is looked up. | Shown, not stored or shared | When you look |
Data from Open Food Facts is © Open Food Facts contributors and available under the Open Database License. Should I Buy It? is an independent project and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by USDA, BLS, Open Food Facts, Walmart, Sam's Club or Costco.
Privacy
No accounts, no tracking, no analytics. Your goals and lists stay in your browser. See the privacy policy for exactly what's sent where.
Spot a wrong verdict or number?
Report it. Say which food, what the package label says, and what you expected. Photos of the label help most. (This opens GitHub, which needs a free account.)
What's new
- Nov 3, 2026 · Diets: gluten-free (celiac), vegetarian and vegan, flagged the same way as allergies, with swaps and meal ideas that fit. Allergen flags were checked against 541 real product labels.
- Nov 2, 2026 · Food allergies: tick the nine major allergens (or type others) under Goals, and every food, scan, plate and swap is flagged “Contains” or “May contain” them. Swaps and meal ideas leave them out. In the extension too.
- Nov 1, 2026 · Shelf prices in a comparison (price of a serving, protein per dollar). Products you've scanned open instantly, even without signal. When Open Food Facts' numbers look wrong, USDA's record for the barcode is used instead if it has one.
- Oct 31, 2026 · Numbers no real label can have (a mistyped crowd-sourced record, like 240,000 mg of sodium in a cup of oat milk) are left out and flagged instead of shown.
- Oct 31, 2026 · Compare two products by barcode: scan one, then the other, and see which has meaningfully less saturated fat, sodium or added sugar, or more protein or fiber.
- Oct 28, 2026 · Read a photo of the label when a barcode isn't found, in the app and in the extension. It's read on your device, and you check the numbers before the verdict.
- Oct 26, 2026 · The extension works on Sam's Club and Costco product pages too, and supplements get their own view.
- Oct 26, 2026 · Install it as a phone app: it opens on a big Scan button with your recent scans. The browser extension moved to a badge next to the rating and Chrome's side panel.
- Oct 25, 2026 · Walmart's own price on the extension card and in the app. A browser extension for Walmart product pages and a phone bookmark. Backup and transfer between devices, a smarter grocery list and cheap meal ideas. A “What decided it” chart and 37 more foods.
- Oct 24, 2026 · Typical prices and protein per dollar. USDA packaged-product search and barcode fallback. Additives and processing level for scanned products. Plate builder, grocery list, swaps and compare.
- Oct 23, 2026 · First version: 375 built-in foods with a personal verdict.
Open source
The code is on GitHub under the MIT License. The data keeps its own licenses, listed above.