Food Scanner App for Kids: What a Child's Score Checks

A food scanner app for kids should check a product against what suits a child. Most popular scanners, including Yuka, give every shopper the same score, while official advice on added sugar and sodium changes with age. Here is what the main apps score, what the guidance says, and where any scanner stops.

TL;DR

Most food scanners give everyone the same score. Two we checked, Snack Check and Sito, say they adjust for a child's age.
Official advice changes with age: added sugar and sodium guidance differs for a toddler and a teen.
Use any scanner as a first check, then read the label, especially for allergies.

How Sito scores a product for your child

Scan a barcode, search, or snap a meal. For a packaged product, we give one KidScore out of 100. Nutrition counts for 50 points, additives for 33 and processing for 17, with 4 extra points for an organic label. The score comes with a word for how often it fits the week, such as "Sometimes for Emma."

Then we add your child:

Under 6. An additive we flag for children moves up one class (one already in our top class stays there), and your child sees that under-6 score in place of the regular one. This is the only age change in the score itself.
Sugar and sodium. The card compares a serving's added sugars and sodium with your child's own daily limits.
Allergens. If a product names your child's allergen, the warning comes first and the score sits behind "Show score anyway."

When a label fails our checks, has no ingredient list or misses key nutrients, we show no score rather than a low one. We never score infant formula or baby milks. You can see how the number is built and every additive we rate.

Scan a food for your child

Scan a barcode and see a score out of 100 with the additives, added sugar and processing behind it, checked against your child's allergies.

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

What the popular food scanners score

What each app says it scores, per its own listing or site, checked September 14, 2026.

App	What it scores	Child-specific (per its listing)	Platforms	Price
Yuka	60% nutrition, 30% additives, 10% organic; a high-risk additive caps the score at 49	None described	iOS, Android	Free; Premium $10, $15 or $20 on iOS ($15/year on its site)
NHS Food Scanner	Traffic lights for sugar, salt and fat; "Good choice" badge; swaps	Family focus; AR to help kids understand	iOS, Android (UK)	Free
Open Food Facts	Nutri-Score A to E, NOVA 1 to 4	None described	iOS, Android	Free (non-profit)
Bobby Approved	Flags over 100 ingredients	None described	iOS (Android not checked)	Free
Fig	Ingredient match to 2,800+ diets and allergies	A profile for each family member (Fig+)	iOS, Android	Free; Fig+ monthly $5.99 or $7.49 on iOS
Snack Check	Per-child 0 to 100 "safety score", dyes, allergens, recalls	Age and allergies per child	iOS (its site links only the App Store)	3 free scans; $2.99/month, $29.99/year
KidScan	AI review of baby product ingredients	Newborns to toddlers	iOS (Android not checked)	Free; $3.99/month, $24.99/year
Sito	0 to 100 KidScore: nutrition 50, additives 33, processing 17, +4 organic	Sodium and added-sugar limits for the child, under-6 additive step, allergen warning	iOS, Android	Not listed here

Yuka's scoring page makes no mention of age or children; more in Yuka for kids.

Apps that say they're made for kids

Snack Check offers a "personalized 0-100 safety score per child" that checks the label against the child's age and allergies (Snack Check listing).
KidScan uses AI to review the ingredient lists of baby food and baby products. No score is described (KidScan listing).
TummyScanner is not a product scanner. Your child holds the phone near their tummy for jokes and food facts (Tummy Scanner).

What "suitable for a child" means in official guidance

Added sugar

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 (January 2026). From birth to age 4: "Avoid added sugars during infancy and early childhood." For ages 5 to 10: "No amount of added sugars is recommended" (DGA 2025-2030).
American Heart Association (2017). Its committee found it "reasonable to recommend" that children have 25 g or less of added sugars a day, about 6 teaspoons, and avoid added sugars under age 2 (AHA scientific statement).

The 25 g figure is the AHA's, not the Dietary Guidelines'. The sugars naturally in fruit and plain milk do not count as added sugars (DGA 2025-2030).

Sodium by age

Age	Sodium per day
1 to 3 years	less than 1,200 mg
4 to 8 years	less than 1,500 mg
9 to 13 years	less than 1,800 mg
14 and up	less than 2,300 mg

Source: Dietary Guidelines 2025-2030. The National Academies (2019) use the same numbers, extrapolated from adults.

Caffeine

The Dietary Guidelines say children 5 to 10 should "avoid caffeinated beverages" (DGA 2025-2030). The American Academy of Pediatrics says caffeine and other stimulants in energy drinks have "no place in the diet of children and adolescents" (AAP clinical report, 2011) and that "avoiding caffeine is the best choice for all kids" (HealthyChildren.org).

Sweeteners

The Dietary Guidelines say no amount of non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended (DGA 2025-2030). The AAP says it is "currently unclear whether there are any long-term health effects from these products on children," and that children with PKU should avoid aspartame (HealthyChildren.org).

Food dyes

The Dietary Guidelines say to limit foods with petroleum-based dyes (DGA 2025-2030).
The AAP says artificial food colors "may be associated with worsened attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms" (HealthyChildren.org).
The FDA revoked authorization for Red No. 3 on January 15, 2025, with a January 15, 2027, deadline. For six other certified dyes, including Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5, the FDA says it is working closely with industry to eliminate them "by the end of 2027," and notes voluntary commitments from companies (FDA).

How a kid-specific score is different

The %DV on a Nutrition Facts label uses 50 g of added sugars and 2,300 mg of sodium, and 20% DV or more per serving counts as high (FDA). Those values are set for adults and children 4 and older; foods made for children 1 through 3 use 1,500 mg sodium and 25 g added sugars instead (21 CFR 101.9). So a regular pack's %DV reflects an older child's or adult's day, not a toddler's.

In KidScore:

One base score. Nutrition uses the published Nutri-Score 2023 point tables with a stricter curve. Added sugars take 4 to 20 points off the nutrition part, from 5 g to 30 g per 100 g. Processing uses the NOVA group. No AI makes the number.
Additives by class. Our table rates 253 additives with 597 citations. Higher classes cost more points.
The child layer. We set the under-6 flag "only where the regulator's own intake estimate shows toddlers or young children passing the daily limit on an ordinary diet, or where the regulator wrote about children specifically." Under 2, the card's daily added-sugars limit is 0, so it shows no share of the day.

What no scanner can tell you

Products that aren't in the database. Even the NHS app says "we're adding more and more products all the time" (NHS Food Scanner).
Label data that is wrong or old. Researchers note that database curators "cannot ensure the validity of the data reported by the producers" (Lazzari et al., 2018).
"May contain" lines. In the US, these "are not required by law" (FDA). Yuka says its preference alerts cannot factor in trace amounts of allergens (Yuka developer reply). Our own card says allergen data "is a reason to check the pack, never a substitute for reading it."
Your child's whole diet. A score describes one product. If you are concerned about your child's diet, talk with your pediatrician (HealthyChildren.org).

Which scanner fits which family

A UK family wanting quick traffic lights: NHS Food Scanner, free.
Allergies or special diets: read the label every time. Fig's diet match or Sito's allergen warning can be a first check.
Curious about additives for the whole household: Yuka. See Yuka for kids.
Checks tied to your child's age and allergies: Sito. For a wider look, see kids nutrition apps in 2026.

FAQ

Is Yuka good for kids?

Yuka scores food the same way for everyone, with no age or child setting described (Yuka Help). Our full look is in Yuka for kids.

Can a scanner check allergies?

Only as a first check. In the US, "may contain" lines are not required by law (FDA). In Sito, when a product names your child's allergen, the warning comes before the score; a "may contain" match says "Read the pack"; with no allergen list, the card says it could not check. More in our food allergy app guide.

What if the app doesn't have the product?

Databases are still growing; the NHS app says it keeps adding products (NHS Food Scanner). In Sito, photograph the nutrition panel and we read it, save the product and log it for you, or create a custom food. If we cannot verify a label, we tell you why instead of scoring it.

Sources

A note from us: This article is for educational purposes and isn't medical advice. Sito is not a medical application and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment (our terms). Every child is different. For concerns about your child's growth, diet, or health, please talk to your pediatrician or a registered dietitian.

About the author: Berkay Yenilmez is the founder of Sito, the AI-powered kids nutrition tracker. We build our guidance on published FDA, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, National Academies, AHA and AAP guidance, plus each app's own listing, the same sources linked above.

Food Scanner App for Kids: What a Child's Score Should Check