The app
An ingredient scanner that does not need the barcode
Point your phone at the label. Pura reads what is actually printed there, and tells you what it means for you specifically.
Illustrative scan. AI-staged product photo.
The essentials
Pura at a glance
Pura is a personal ingredient scanner for iPhone and iPad. Photograph a food, cosmetic or supplement label to check the listed ingredients against your allergies and preferences, compare products and ask follow-up questions.
- What you can check
- Food, cosmetics and supplements.
- What makes it personal
- Your allergies, things you avoid, skin and hair preferences — with separate profiles for your household.
- Where it works
- iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 or later.
- App languages
- English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.
- Getting started
- Pura is free to download with optional Premium subscriptions. Current prices, scan allowances and any trial eligibility are shown in the app before you subscribe.
A barcode lookup relies on a product record. A photo lets you start with the ingredient list in your hand, including on local brands and imports. Make sure the whole list is visible and the text is clear.
Pura reads the label instead. Photograph the ingredient list to see what is in the product and which ingredients match the needs and preferences in your profile.
What "for you" means
You tell Pura once what you and your household care about: allergies, conditions, the things you have decided to avoid. Every scan after that is measured against that profile. You can keep separate profiles for different people, because what matters for you and what matters for your child are not the same list.
Pura keeps the ingredient score separate from personal suitability. A product can have a high score and still contain something you avoid. Your personal flags explain those matches, so you can see both the broader assessment and what matters to you.
Three categories, judged separately
Food, cosmetics and supplements get different criteria, because they are different things. A preservative in a moisturiser and a preservative in a drink are not the same question, and a supplement's dose disclosure has no equivalent on a shampoo bottle.
Food: check beyond the front of the pack
See which listed ingredients match your allergies and things you avoid. Compare personal flags alongside the ingredient score. Learn to read a food label.
Cosmetics: bring your skin and hair preferences
Check a moisturiser, shampoo or other care product against your profile, with an explanation of the ingredients highlighted for you. Make sense of a cosmetics label.
Supplements: know what comes with the dose
Check listed ingredients against your preferences, including capsule ingredients and other additions. A scan does not decide whether you need a supplement. Understand a supplement label.
It checks the front against the back
"All natural." "No added sugar." "Free from nasties." Pura checks claims like these against what the ingredient list actually shows, which is a job the packaging is not going to do for you.
Compare before you choose
Put two products side by side to compare their ingredients, scores and personal flags. Keep the reason for a difference in view, rather than relying on the number alone.
Then you can just ask
After a scan, ask about a flagged ingredient or an unfamiliar claim. What does “no added sugar” mean? Why was this ingredient flagged for me? Pura helps explain the label so you can make your own decision.
What it cannot do
Pura reads what is printed on a label. It cannot tell you about cross-contamination or how a product was handled in a factory, it cannot detect adulteration, and it cannot tell you how much of an ingredient is in there when the label does not say. It is information, not medical advice. If an allergy is severe, treat Pura as a first filter and not as the decision.
We would rather tell you that here than have you discover it at the wrong moment.
Written for a situation
- Reading labels for a baby or a small child A short list of things that genuinely matter, and permission to stop worrying about the rest.
- Reading labels for acne-prone skin One of the few shelves where the concentration is printed, next to a scale of numbers that measures a rabbit's ear.
- Reading labels for curly and coily hair The most confidently repeated ingredient list on the internet, checked against what the dermatology literature actually says.
- Reading labels for eczema and atopic skin The most ordinary ingredients in a moisturiser turn into regulated drug actives the moment the product claims to protect skin.
- Reading labels for hair loss and thinning A category where the regulator has already written down what it thinks of the claims, in language nobody quotes.
- Reading labels for menopausal skin A change with a measured rate attached to it, which is more than most of the products aimed at it can say.
- Reading labels for teenage skin A category where the products being marketed hardest are the ones with the least reason to be on a young face.
- Reading labels when an ingredient is banned somewhere else The most repeated claim in food writing, applied to a set of ingredients where it is sometimes exactly right and often not.
- Reading labels when you are pregnant Nine months of checking labels. Here is what is worth checking, and what is not.
- Reading labels when you are watching blood sugar There are three places sugar shows up on a packet, and they answer three different questions. Most people read only one of them.
- Reading labels when you avoid animal ingredients "Vegan" is not a legally defined word. That single fact explains most of what makes this difficult.
- Reading labels when you avoid gluten One of the very few reassuring words on a package that means something exact. The gaps are elsewhere.
- Reading labels when you have a thyroid condition Three ordinary things on a supplement label that interact with a thyroid, none of which the label mentions.
- Reading labels when you keep halal or kosher An ingredient list is designed to tell you what a substance is. Your question is where it came from, and those are not the same question.
- Reading labels when you take a prescription A whole aisle of products that interact with common prescriptions, and not one of them mentions the medicine on the box.
- Reading labels when your skin reacts to everything Sensitive skin is not one thing, which is why generic sensitive-skin advice keeps failing you.
- Reading labels with a food allergy The ingredient list is the most trustworthy part of a package. It is also not the whole answer, and the gap is worth understanding precisely.
- Reading labels with a fragrance allergy The most common cause of cosmetic contact allergy, declared under a single word that names nothing.
Compared with the alternatives
- EWG or Pura: a hazard score or your own profile Two decades of nonprofit research, a hazard score, and a long-running argument about what that score can carry.
- Fooducate or Pura: a tracker or an ingredient reader A nutrition tracker with a grading system, against an ingredient reader with no grades at all.
- Open Food Facts or Pura: open data or a personal answer A free, open, nonprofit database against a paid app. This one is harder to argue than the others, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- Think Dirty or Pura: cosmetics depth or reading the label One of the original cosmetics scanners, against an app that reads the label instead of looking it up.
- Yuka or Pura: a database or a photograph Two different bets about what an ingredient app should be. Here is where each one wins.
Before you get started
Does the product need to be in a database?
No. Pura reads the ingredient list in your photo rather than looking up a barcode. The list needs to be visible and legible, including on local brands and imported products.
What can Pura scan?
Food, cosmetics and supplements. Each category is assessed on its own terms, with personal flags kept separate from the ingredient score.
Can I check products for my skin and hair?
Yes. Add your skin and hair preferences to your profile so Pura can highlight relevant ingredients in cosmetics and hair care.
Can I check for someone in my family?
Yes. Keep separate household profiles so you can see which ingredients match each person's needs and preferences.
Can I compare products and ask questions?
Yes. Compare ingredients, scores and personal flags side by side, then ask Pura follow-up questions about your scan.
Which devices and languages are supported?
Pura works on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 or later. The app supports English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.
What does Pura cost?
Pura is free to download with optional Premium subscriptions. Current prices, scan allowances and any trial eligibility are shown in the app before you subscribe.
What can Pura not do?
Pura reads the label and can miss or misread text. It cannot detect cross-contamination, adulteration or amounts that the label does not disclose. It provides information, not medical advice or a guarantee of allergy safety.