Scanning a barcode

Overview

Scanning is the fastest way to check a product. GreenCheck reads the barcode, looks the item up, analyzes its ingredients, and grades it against every child you’ve added — all in a few seconds.

Open the scanner

1. 1
   Tap “Scan a product”
   From the Home screen, tap the green Scan a product button, or the center Scan button in the tab bar.

   

2. 2
   Choose which kids
   At the top of Home, tap a child’s avatar to scan just for them, or leave All kids selected to score for everyone at once.
3. 3
   Allow camera access
   The first time, GreenCheck asks for permission to use the camera. Tap Allow. You can change this later in your phone’s Settings.

Scan the barcode

1. 1
   Stay on the Barcode tab
   Make sure Barcode is selected at the top of the scanner.
2. 2
   Line up the barcode
   Hold your phone steady and center the barcode inside the frame. Scanning is automatic — there’s no button to press.

   

3. 3
   Wait for the green check
   When the code is read, the frame turns green and you’ll see “Barcode found.”

Read the result

GreenCheck looks the product up and checks its ingredients for each child.

Then you’ll see a result card with a grade for every child.

• A grade row for each child, with a one-line verdict.
• A red banner at the top if the product isn’t safe for one of your kids.
• Tap a child to see the ingredient-by-ingredient breakdown.
• “Better picks” and “Post about this” actions at the bottom.

Want to know how the grade is decided? See How scoring happens.

If a barcode won’t scan

• If nothing happens after a few seconds, tap the screen to focus and hold steady.
• If the barcode isn’t in our database yet, you’ll get options to capture or type the ingredients instead — see Capturing ingredients and Manually entering ingredients.