Food dye and additive check

Is that snack actually safe for your kid?

The dyes are legal, the box is bright, and the ingredient list is unreadable. Yemmi scans any snack and flags synthetic dyes and additives in seconds — then points to a kid-safe swap in the same aisle.

Free to start. No account needed. For educational purposes only, not medical advice.

Yemmi, a friendly plush sprout inside a scanner frame
F
Red 40, Yellow 5
Flagged for your kid's profile. Two synthetic dyes, first three ingredients.
The part that keeps you up

You're being asked to out-read the label, every single time

The rules shift, the names change, and the front of the box is doing its best to distract you. It's not that you aren't careful. It's that the snack aisle asks more of a parent than any label can honestly deliver.

The rules are changing under you

Red 3 was banned by the FDA in food in January 2025 — decades after it was restricted in cosmetics. States like California and West Virginia have moved to ban more dyes from school food. What's allowed today may be phased out tomorrow. It's still on the shelf right now.

Bright box, buried list

The front says fruit. The dyes hide in tiny print under names like FD&C Yellow No. 5, halfway down a list written to be skimmed, not understood.

You can't memorize this

Six synthetic dyes, dozens of E-numbers and additive aliases, and the list keeps changing. Nobody can hold that in their head at the shelf with a toddler in the cart.

None of this is a failure of research on your part. It's a moving target. Yemmi's job is to track it so you don't have to.

How the check works

Set the watch list once. Every snack checked in seconds.

You tell Yemmi what to watch a single time. From then on, the flag comes first — before the grade, before you read a word of the label.

1

Set the watch list

Dyes, sweeteners, additives — whatever you want flagged for your kid. Once, in about a minute.

2

Scan any snack

A barcode or a photo of the label. Yemmi reads the full ingredient list, including the tiny print and the alias names.

3

See the flag first, then the swap

Anything on your list shows up in red before you read. Then Yemmi points to a cleaner pick from the same aisle.

Red 40 Yellow 5 Blue 1 Dye-free
Yemmi with a camera and a magnifier, checking a snack label for synthetic dyes
Same snack, two answers

The fruit snacks graded for the box — and graded for your kid

Take a bag of fruit snacks. In 2021, California's state scientists reviewed the evidence and linked synthetic dyes to hyperactivity and other behavioral effects in some children — one reason schools started dropping them. Your kid isn't a marketing claim. The grade should be built around who's actually eating it.

B
For the front of the box

"Made with real fruit," says the label. Judged the way the box wants to be judged, it scrapes by.

F
For your kid

Same bag. Red 40 and Yellow 5 sit right after sugar. Flagged before it hits the cart.

One bag. Two honest answers. The difference is that one of them was graded for your kid.

About a minute

Build your kid-safe watch list

Answer a few questions about who you're shopping for and what you want flagged. Yemmi builds the watch list that checks every snack before it lands in the cart.

Build my watch list

Free to start. No account needed.

Common questions

Before your first scan

Which dyes does Yemmi flag?

The synthetic dyes you'd recognize from US labels — Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, and Red 3 (now banned in food but still working through shelves) — plus the aliases and lake forms they hide behind. You choose what to watch, and every scan is checked against it.

Is Red 40 actually banned?

No — Red 40 is still legal in US food. Red 3 was banned by the FDA in January 2025. Several states have passed laws removing some synthetic dyes from school food, and regulators have signaled a phase-out of petroleum-based dyes, but most remain legal and common. That's exactly why a scanner helps: the shelf doesn't tell you any of this.

Does Yemmi suggest dye-free swaps?

Yes. When a snack gets flagged, Yemmi points to a cleaner option in the same aisle — same treat, without the ingredients you asked it to watch.

What about 'natural flavors' and other vague terms?

Yemmi reads the whole list and explains vague terms in plain English. It can't see past what the label discloses — nobody can — but it makes sure nothing disclosed slips past you.

Is this medical advice?

No. Yemmi is for educational purposes only. It helps you spot dyes, additives, and label wording faster, but it does not diagnose or treat, it can miss or misread a label, and it does not replace reading the physical package or the guidance of your healthcare professional. See our medical disclaimer.

Know before they eat it

Set the watch list once, and every bright box gets checked against it — dyes flagged in red, a cleaner swap one shelf over.

Check my kid's snacks Download on theApp Store

For educational purposes only, not medical advice. Always read the physical label.