Legal here. Banned over there.
Dozens of ingredients allowed on American shelves are banned or restricted in the European Union, the UK, Canada, and beyond. You can't see them from the front of the box. Yemmi reads every label and tells you — this one, right here, in your hand.
The border changes the recipe, not the brand
The same global brands sell the same products on both sides of the Atlantic — often with different ingredient lists. Where the rules are stricter, the additive quietly comes out. Where they aren't, it stays in. Same box, same logo, different food.
You can't taste a ban
Bromate in the bread, titanium dioxide brightening the candy, a dough conditioner from the EU's banned list. Nothing on the front of the pack hints at any of it.
The list never stops moving
BVO revoked in 2024. Red 3 banned in January 2025. California's restrictions arrive in 2027. Nobody can track this from the cereal aisle — a database can.
Rumors aren't research
Half the internet says everything is poison; the other half says relax. Yemmi flags only what regulators actually did — banned, restricted, or warning-labeled — with the source.
Scan it. See where it's banned. Swap it.
One scan reads the full ingredient list and checks it against a database of regulator actions — not blog rumors.
Scan anything
A barcode, a photo of the label, or the name. Packaged food, store brands, and restaurant items all work.
See the banned-abroad flags
Each flagged ingredient says exactly where it's banned or restricted, and what regulators said — in plain English, with no panic.
Take the cleaner swap
Yemmi points to a similar product in the same aisle without the flagged ingredients, so the answer is never just bad news.
In Paris, this loaf can't contain potassium bromate. In most US states, it can.
Take an ordinary loaf of sandwich bread. The European Union banned bromated flour decades ago, so the recipe sold there simply doesn't use it. The American recipe still can, in most states, and the front of the bag looks identical. The only way to know is the fine print — or one scan.
Same brand, reformulated. Bromate-free because the law says it must be.
Same loaf style, US recipe. Bromated flour is in the fine print. Yemmi flags it before it hits your cart.
Every flag traces back to a regulator, not a blog
Yemmi's banned-abroad database is audited against the actual sources — FDA actions, EU regulations, UK and Canadian rules, and US state laws. Hundreds of individual claims reviewed, and updated when the rules move.
BVO revoked
The FDA pulled brominated vegetable oil from US food — decades after other countries did. Yemmi's database moved the same season.
Red 3 banned
Banned by the FDA in food in January 2025 — while it's still selling through shelves. Yemmi flags it wherever it appears.
State bans arriving
California's food safety law removes potassium bromate, propylparaben, and more from foods sold there. The shelf won't announce it. Yemmi will.
See what your pantry is carrying
Answer a few questions and Yemmi builds your profile — then start scanning the foods you already own. Most people find their first flag in the first five scans.
Before your first scan
Which ingredients are banned in Europe but legal in the US?
The best-known examples: potassium bromate (a flour treatment in some breads, banned in the EU, UK, Canada, and elsewhere), titanium dioxide (a whitener in candy and gum, banned as a food additive in the EU since 2022), azodicarbonamide (a dough conditioner, banned in the EU and Australia), and rBST growth hormone in dairy (banned in the EU and Canada). Several synthetic dyes like Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6 are legal in both places but require a warning label in the EU. And the US list is moving: the FDA revoked brominated vegetable oil in 2024 and banned Red 3 in food in January 2025.
If it's legal in the US, is it actually dangerous?
Not necessarily, and Yemmi won't pretend otherwise. A ban abroad is not proof of harm — regulators weigh the same evidence differently, and the EU often acts on precaution. What a ban does mean is that serious scientists somewhere looked at the ingredient and said no. Yemmi shows you where each ingredient is restricted and why, in plain English, so you can decide with open eyes instead of never knowing it was there.
How does Yemmi know where an ingredient is banned?
Yemmi keeps an audited claims database checked against regulator sources — FDA actions, EU regulations, UK and Canadian rules, and US state laws. Hundreds of individual claims have been reviewed against those sources, and the database moves when the rules move, like the FDA's Red 3 ban in 2025, the BVO revocation in 2024, and California's restrictions arriving in 2027.
Does it work on any food?
Scan a barcode, photograph the ingredient label, or search a food by name. Packaged foods, store brands, and restaurant items all work. Every scan also runs your personal flags — allergens, added sugar, whatever you asked Yemmi to watch.
Is this medical advice?
No. Yemmi is for educational purposes only. It surfaces where ingredients are banned or restricted and what regulators have said, but it does not diagnose or treat, and it does not replace a healthcare professional or your own reading of the physical label. See our medical disclaimer.
See your food the way the rest of the world does
One scan shows what's in the fine print, where it's banned, and what to grab instead. The label won't tell you. Yemmi will.