Mallow Support

You have three options on the Scan & Log tab:

• Camera scan — tap "Scan barcode with camera". Hold the package barcode steady in the frame and Mallow auto-detects EAN-13 / EAN-8 / UPC-A / UPC-E codes.
• Manual entry — type the barcode number (the digits printed below the barcode lines) and tap "Look up".
• AI Photo Scan — for any food without a barcode (a meal, restaurant dish, or label without code), tap "AI Photo Scan", capture or upload a photo, and Mallow's AI identifies the food.

The Mallow Health Score blends:

• Nutri-Score grade (A–E) from the European food labelling system
• NOVA group (1–4) — how processed the food is
• "Dirty 30" additives — flagged synthetic chemicals (e.g., Red 40, Sodium Nitrite, BHA/BHT, Aspartame)
• Seed oils detected in the ingredient list
• Hidden sugars (40+ aliases — HFCS, maltodextrin, agave, etc.)

A score of 80+ is excellent (whole foods), 50–79 is moderate, and below 40 means heavy processing or sugar load.

Live barcode scanning needs iOS 17 or later. On older iOS versions you can:

• Type the barcode number manually
• Use AI Photo Scan to snap the package — Mallow's AI will read the label including the barcode digits

If you're on iOS 17+ and it still doesn't work, double-check that you allowed Camera permission for Mallow in iOS Settings → Mallow → Camera.

Everything is saved locally on your device. Mallow doesn't have user accounts and doesn't upload your scan history anywhere. This means:

• Your data stays private — we can't see it
• If you delete the app or clear browser storage, your history is gone
• Scans don't sync across devices (yet — iCloud sync is on the roadmap)

Mallow is fully free. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no premium tier. Every feature in the app is available to everyone.

Tap the ⚙ gear icon in the bottom-right of the app. You can set:

• Your first name (used for personal greetings)
• Allergens to avoid (Mallow flags matching ingredients in scan results)
• Diet preference (Keto, Paleo, Low-Sugar, Clean, or Plant-based)
• Daily kcal goal

Barcode lookups query the Open Food Facts public database — a community-maintained, open-licensed catalogue of millions of food products. AI photo analysis is performed by Anthropic's Claude vision model. Neither service receives any personal information.

It's Mallow's reference list of synthetic additives commonly found in ultra-processed foods that have credible health concerns: artificial dyes (Red 40, Yellow 5/6, Allura Red), preservatives (BHA, BHT, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Nitrite), sweeteners (Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K), titanium dioxide (E171, banned in EU), carrageenan (E407), and more. Each scan is checked against this list automatically.

Most adults enter nutritional ketosis at under 50 g of net carbs per day; therapeutic keto often targets under 20 g. Mallow's ring shows your daily total against 50 g as a reasonable upper bound. If you have a doctor's specific target, you can ignore the meter — Mallow doesn't enforce anything.

Barcode-based scans use the manufacturer-provided nutritional data from Open Food Facts, which is generally accurate but can occasionally be incomplete. AI photo analysis is an estimate — it's good for "is this keto-friendly?" decisions but isn't a substitute for a nutrition label or a registered dietitian. Mallow is not a medical device and doesn't replace medical advice.

Open Food Facts doesn't have every product — especially smaller regional brands. You can:

• Use AI Photo Scan instead — Mallow can analyse the label even if the barcode isn't in the database
• Contribute the product to Open Food Facts so future scans will find it

To clear all locally-stored scans, meals, fasts and preferences: open the app, then in your browser console (or via the iOS app, after enabling Web Inspector) run localStorage.clear(), or delete and reinstall the app. There's no cloud account to delete because Mallow doesn't have user accounts.