Everyone's suddenly terrified of what's in their products. I built the thing I wished existed.
Red 3, seed oils, ingredients banned in Europe but sitting smugly on shelves here.
Half my feed is people flipping products over and realizing they have no idea what they're looking at. And it's not just food anymore, it's shampoo, cleaning spray, kids' snacks.
The wall everyone hits is the same: you turn it over and it's fifteen-letter chemical names you can't pronounce, let alone judge.
I hit that wall with a nasal spray I'd used daily for years. One day I actually read the back, benzalkonium chloride, polysorbate 80, phenylethyl alcohol, and sat there Googling them one at a time in the pharmacy aisle. Turns out benzalkonium chloride can actually make the rebound congestion worse with regular use, which is the exact thing I was spraying it to fix. I cut way back after that. That moment of betrayal was when I knew Cornstarch had to be built.
Point your camera at any label and it reads it instantly, in plain English. No barcode, no database to match against. If you can see the label, it works, which matters because barcode apps like Yuka just shrug at anything they haven't indexed.
I use it constantly now, mostly scanning stuff right there in the aisle before it goes in the cart.
7,500+ people use it now and I'm genuinely excited about where it's going. The DMs and reviews mean the world to me and my tiny team.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cornstarch-ingredient-scanner/id6743107572
My favorite feature, it also builds a weekly Health Intelligence report from what you scan, your worst-offending ingredients, a clean ratio you watch climb week over week, and a plan to actually improve. The more you scan the better the insights.
What's the one ingredient that made you start actually reading labels?
EDIT — adding ABC format per sub rules:
A (Answer): Cornstarch reads any product label with your camera and explains what's actually in it in plain English, flagging allergens, dyes, and risky ingredients across food, skincare, supplements, and household products. No barcode needed.
B (Better): Unlike Yuka or Bobby Approved, which rely on barcode databases and fail on anything unindexed (boutique brands, supplements, foreign products, reformulations), Cornstarch uses OCR + LLM to read the actual label, so it works on any product even if it's never been catalogued. Yuka also won't analyze supplements, protein powders, pet foods, sprays; Cornstarch does.
It also goes beyond a single scan, building a weekly Health Intelligence report that tracks your worst-offending ingredients, a clean ratio that climbs week over week, and a personalized plan to actually improve, something the barcode apps don't offer at all.
C (Cost): Free to download with limited free scans. Unlimited scans + full Health Intelligence Report via subscription: $29.99/year | $2.50/month (3-day free trial) or $4.99/month flexible spend. No other IAPs. Family Sharing is also enabled, so one subscription covers your whole Apple Family group (up to 6 people).
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cornstarch-ingredient-scanner/id6743107572