French retailers adopt Yuka score for transparency

Several major retailers and cosmetics brands in France, including Carrefour, Intermarché, Picard, Typology, and Aroma-Zone, will display the Yuka score on their websites. This initiative aims to improve food and cosmetic transparency and provide consumers with more information.

Yuka app evaluates product composition

The Yuka application, which has 23 million users in France and 90 million worldwide, evaluates the composition of foods based on nutritional quality and the presence or absence of additives, and cosmetics based on the presence of harmful ingredients. It assigns a score out of 100, with the best score being 100/100 and the worst 0/100.

Online access to Yuka scores expands

Previously, the Yuka score was accessible mainly through the application by scanning product barcodes with a smartphone camera. This method required being in the store with a phone, which was inconvenient for those shopping via drive or delivery. Carrefour and Intermarché have decided to display the Yuka scores for each product directly on their websites.

Retailers prioritize public health data

Thierry Cotillard, President of the Mousquetaires Group, stated that some brands have refused to display the scores, but they have chosen to do so anyway, considering it public health data. Promoting food transparency is important for retailers' image, as it allows them to show customers that they care about their health. As a result, a dozen retailers have chosen to follow the trend.

Timeline for Yuka score implementation

Carrefour will display the Yuka scores for its private label products during October, with a later date not yet disclosed for national brand products. Picard has committed to displaying the Yuka score for early 2027, while Naturalia and Bioocoop will do so by the end of 2026. Other retailers such as Houra, Le Fourgon, Chronodrive, and La Fourche have already started displaying the Yuka scores on their websites.

Yuka score differs from Nutri-Score

Although the Yuka score may seem redundant with the Nutri-Score, it includes the Nutri-Score calculation but also considers the presence of additives and the mode of agriculture. The nutritional quality represents 60% of the score, based on the Nutri-Score method, additives account for 30% of the score, and a 10% bonus is given to organic products.

Cosmetic brands adopt Yuka scores

The Yuka score is displayed on several cosmetic sales sites. A new development will help consumers understand the composition of cosmetics: Yuka will be available on the sites of Aroma-Zone and the pharmacy and parapharmacy cosmetic brand SVR by the end of the year. The score is already present on the sites of L'Arbre Vert, Caudalie, Garancia, Corine de Farme, and Typology.

Transparency builds consumer trust

Sabrina Herlory Rouget, general director of Aroma-Zone, stated that transparency is essential to allow everyone to take care of themselves with confidence. The Yuka scores contribute to this information requirement and help consumers better understand the products they use. These brands are already committed to promoting natural formulations. This new display could motivate others to integrate Yuka into their websites and possibly change the composition of their products to improve their scores.

Yuka influences product reformulations

In the food industry, last year, Yuka highlighted several products, such as the Jacquet white bread, the Harry's brioche, or the Fleury Michon cauliflower gratin, which removed additives from their recipes to improve their scores. Although it is impossible to affirm that the application motivated these decisions, it is possible that a Yuka feature influenced them: the one that allows users to send a pre-written email to the brands of products they believe have poor composition, suggesting they modify it.

Industry leaders acknowledge Yuka's impact

In 2019, when Intermarché decided to remove 142 additives from 900 products of its private label, its CEO Thierry Cotillard himself acknowledged that the Yuka application was a "fundamental trend."