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MicroPlastics vs Yuka

Also the answer if you searched for a yuka alternative for microplastics.

We make one of these apps. Read the table accordingly: we lead 6 rows and 2 are comparable, and we chose which rows to compare. Every claim about Yuka comes from their own public materials, linked at the bottom, last checked August 9, 2026 — if one is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

The short answer

Yuka’s published food score is 60% nutrition, 30% additives and 10% organic status. By their own published numbers there is no term in that formula for the container, the polymer, or the temperature it was stored at. That is the entire question this app answers — scored across 100 points with 30 of them on packaging alone — and it is not a number Yuka produces.

What Yuka is

Yuka is the category-defining scanner, with tens of millions of users. Its published food score is 60% nutritional quality, 30% additives and 10% organic status. Its cosmetics score rates ingredients by hazard. It is funded by users rather than brands and is emphatic about taking no money from the companies it rates.

Side by side

MicroPlastics compared with Yuka across 8 dimensions
 YukaMicroPlastics
Published scoring formulaYes — 60/30/10 for foodYes — five components summing to 100, with every component rendered on the page
Packaging in the scoreNo term for the container in the published formula30 of 100 points, plus its own 15-format database
Polymer identificationNot part of the food scoreCore — PET, PP, polystyrene and PLA are scored differently because they behave differently
Use conditionsNot part of the food score25 of 100 points — heat, abrasion, contact time, reuse
MicroplasticsNot part of the published scoring modelThe entire model
Evidence gradingHazard classifications drawn from published sourcesA–D per product, capping the confidence each page may state
Cosmetic microplastic detectionPer-ingredient hazard ratings, which score toxicity rather than polymer contentFirst-party audits of 371 published formulas across CeraVe, Cetaphil, Neutrogena, Fenty, Huda, rhode and Kylie, plus a free INCI checker, 120+ ingredient pages and a brand database
IndependenceUser-funded, takes no money from rated brandsNo paid scores or placements; affiliate links disclosed where they exist

"Not described in their public materials" means exactly that — we can only report what a company publishes, and absence of a published claim is not proof a feature is missing.

Which one you want

Use Yuka if

Your question is nutritional rather than material — what is in the food, not what it came in.

Use MicroPlastics if

You have already sorted out what you eat and want to deal with what it comes in. The same yogurt in a glass jar and a plastic pot scores identically in a nutrition-and-additives model, and differently in ours. That difference is the entire reason to use both apps rather than one.

These are not mutually exclusive and we are not going to pretend they are. Plenty of people run a broad scanner for the weekly shop and a specialist for the things they use every day.

Check our working before you install anything

The whole database is on the web, free, with no account: 132 products scored component by component, 30 materials, 15 packaging formats, and 24 sources each listed with what it does not establish. That is a harder thing to fake than a feature list.

Search the free databaseGet the app free

Frequently Asked Questions

MicroPlastics or Yuka — which should I use?

Yuka’s published food score is 60% nutrition, 30% additives and 10% organic status. By their own published numbers there is no term in that formula for the container, the polymer, or the temperature it was stored at. That is the entire question this app answers — scored across 100 points with 30 of them on packaging alone — and it is not a number Yuka produces.

Is MicroPlastics a good Yuka alternative?

You have already sorted out what you eat and want to deal with what it comes in. The same yogurt in a glass jar and a plastic pot scores identically in a nutrition-and-additives model, and differently in ours. That difference is the entire reason to use both apps rather than one. The table above compares the two on the axis this app exists for; where Yuka works on a different question entirely, that is a reason to use both rather than a reason to switch.

How do we know this comparison is accurate?

Every claim about Yuka is drawn from their own public materials, linked at the bottom of this page and last checked on August 9, 2026. Where we could not verify something we say "not described in their public materials" rather than asserting a feature is absent. Products change; if a row here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it, including when the correction favours them.

Where these claims come from

Checked August 9, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — corrections are published, not quietly applied.

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