That is why we built GlutenTrace. It does what we did in our heads, every single time.
How it works
Scan the barcode
The app looks up the product and tells you whether it contains gluten, may contain traces, or carries a regulated gluten-free label.
Or photograph the ingredient list
The phone reads the label itself. The photo never leaves your phone, and it works on products no database knows.
Three answers, not two
Most gluten apps give you a green check mark or a red cross. Real labels are rarely like that.
Red means the gluten source is in the list. The app shows you which word.
Yellow means the label cannot settle it. "May contain traces" is a voluntary statement with no legal limit behind it - researchers have measured gluten above 20 ppm in roughly the same share of products carrying the warning as those without it. Unspecified starch, flavoring and yeast extract land in the same place.
Green means we found neither gluten nor anything it could be hiding behind.
And when the app reads with the camera
If it finds no gluten in a photo, the answer is yellow, not green. Text recognition loses words it cannot read, and a blurred "wheat flour" simply disappears. We would rather say "I am not sure" than give a green check mark we cannot stand behind.
It knows the hidden names
Malt extract. Semolina. Durum. Spelt. Emmer. Seitan.
The app recognizes gluten sources in ten languages, so a German or Italian package is read correctly too. The vocabulary is written by hand from our own research here on Renmel - it is not guessed by a machine.
Free and Pro
The answer itself is always free. If you are standing in a store with celiac disease, you get the verdict and the reasoning without paying.
Free
- Unlimited scanning
- The verdict and why
- Which ingredient is the source
- Your own list, which you can send to whoever is shopping
- No account, no ads
Pro
- The full ingredient list with gluten highlighted
- Product photo when the database has one
- How old the information is
- Unlimited history
- All articles
- Restaurant cards in six languages for travel
Who made it
It is made by the family behind Renmel. Same people, same research, same principle: better to say it honestly than to say it nicely.
Free. Requires an iPhone with iOS 16.4 or later.