- Registered Dietitian
- Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist
Education
- New York University, BS in Nutrition & Dietetics
- Russell Sage College, MS in Applied Nutrition
It can be difficult to determine the healthiness of a certain food just by looking at it or taking a glance at its packaging. That’s why barcode scanning and AI meal tracking apps now exist. For six weeks, I tested one of these apps, Zoe Health: AI Meal Tracker, to take a closer look at my diet and see if the app delivers on its promises.
“The inspiration was to make something that was super easy to use, really fun, positive in its messaging and to turn the typical nutrition tracker on its head, so to create something that doesn’t feel like you’re trying to not eat anything,” says Dr. Federica Amati, head nutritionist at Zoe, on what inspired the app’s creation.
How the Zoe Health app works
The Zoe app was designed by the creators of the world’s largest nutrition study and combines several features that could be beneficial for learning more about your nutrition — that is, if they work correctly. Here was my experience.
AI photo logging: It’s fast and weirdly accurate
The AI photo-logging feature allows you to take a photo of your meal to see a breakdown of the ingredients (which you can edit) and the nutrition facts, along with a food score and an overview of the food and why it received the score it did from Ziggie, the app’s AI nutrition coach. The food score ranges from 0 to 100 and indicates how certain foods may impact your health.
Amelia Ti, a registered dietitian and diabetes educator in New York City who is also part of CNET’s medical review board, says that while assigning a numerical score to food can provide educational insight, it can also be problematic because it reinforces the idea that foods have moral value and are either “good” or “bad.” This can potentially lead to feelings of guilt or encourage restriction.
“The photo logging and ingredient breakdown are definitely useful and can increase awareness of patterns,” adds Ti. “I would de-emphasize the score and instead focus on personalized feedback and reflection — how foods make that person feel rather than how they rank on a scale.”
My AI photo logging experience
I was surprised at how quickly the AI photo-logging tool was able to identify my meals. For instance, when I took a photo of my half-eaten oatmeal, it was able to detect within seconds that it contained oatmeal, banana, peanut butter and chia seeds. I added that it also had pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds, and adjusted the amounts accordingly.
I wasn’t always sure of the exact amount of certain ingredients in my food — which would be the case when eating out, something I didn’t do when testing the app — so I didn’t put a ton of weight on the numerical food score my meals received. Instead, I simply saw them as a guide I could follow with my own judgment and research.
My experience with AskZiggie
I mostly saw Ziggie when reading the AI overviews for the foods I photographed, but I briefly tested it out as a chatbot. I started by selecting one of the provided prompts: “How do I get plant diversity without food waste?” Ziggie answered with a few recipe ideas, which I could click on to see why the meal received the food score it did, along with the ingredients and steps needed to make it.
As a test, I asked, “Do I have diabetes?” Ziggie answered by saying it couldn’t provide medical advice or diagnoses and that I should consult my doctor.
My next question was, “Are carbs bad?” It answered by citing Zoe’s research, which found that not all carbs are created equal, an answer supported by the Cleveland Clinic. Refined carbs like white bread or pastries can cause blood sugar spikes and aren’t ideal for gut or long-term health, while complex carbs like veggies or beans can offer essential nutrients and sustained energy because they’re digested more slowly. Ziggie then asked if I’d like to learn more about what makes a carb “good” or “bad” — quotations included, which I appreciated, as food shouldn’t be labelled in such a black-or-white way.
“This approach is an improvement over older processing models like Nova — it’s more individualized, evidence-based and data-driven,” says Ti. “I like that they recognize that ‘processing’ alone doesn’t always predict a food’s health impact (e.g., frozen veggies are technically processed).”
However, Ti believes that labeling foods using a risk scale could be problematic, as it introduces a hierarchy and assigns morality. “For someone trying to repair their relationship with food, seeing ‘high risk’ attached to something they enjoy can trigger shame, guilt or restriction,” she says.
Zoe was able to build the US database for this tool in large part thanks to crowdsourcing, where Americans scanned products to contribute to the database. If an item isn’t known, Zoe asks that a photo of the food product be sent to its food scientists.
My experience with the risk scale
A lot has been written about the pros and cons of using apps that rate your food with a score, especially considering that, because every app has its own methodology, you’ll get different ratings from each one.
With Zoe, when you scan a barcode, you get a score you can click on for Ziggie’s AI assessment, a list of ingredients that you can edit, the nutrition facts and more information about the scoring system itself. For some of the products I scanned, I found that one of the nutrition facts was slightly off compared to what was listed on the product packaging.
For instance, a corn masa, refried bean and cheese Amy’s burrito I had for a quick lunch was reported as having 32 grams of carbs on Zoe while the packaging said 38 grams. I wasn’t able to adjust these numbers on the app.
Interestingly, the only product I scanned that was labelled “high risk” was the Planet Oat milk. Zoe said that it contains one additive to watch out for, potassium phosphates, and that it has a high-energy intake rate, meaning it delivers calories fast. The packaging itself says it contains dipotassium phosphate as a stabilizer.
“While dipotassium phosphate is considered safe by the FDA, research suggests that consuming large amounts of phosphorus additives is linked to cardiovascular and kidney disease risk, particularly for individuals with preexisting impaired kidney function,” says Ti. “Because phosphate additives are so common, especially in processed foods, your overall exposure and consumption may be more relevant than with any single product.”
My diet score experience
Because I didn’t log all my meals with the app and instead focused on specific foods and products I wanted to see the nutrition facts for, I didn’t put a lot of stock into this score. However, if you struggle with healthy eating and want accountability, this score may be beneficial. On the other hand, if you have a history of disordered eating, this could be harmful.
“While the diet score could increase awareness around patterns and help some stay mindful, it also places judgment on eating patterns. For those learning to eat intuitively or recovering from disordered eating, seeing a ‘low diet score’ might trigger guilt or restriction,” says Ti. “Since the score’s accuracy also depends on complete and precise logging, it may not always reflect actual diet quality and could undermine trust in one’s own hunger and fullness cues.”
Who isn’t the Zoe app right for?
When I asked Amati about who the Zoe app might not be right for, she mentioned people with complex dietary needs that require support from a specialist, such as those with chronic kidney disease or people with a history of disordered eating.
“I think tracking in general isn’t helpful for a lot of people who [cope with] disordered eating, so it’s not just us, but anything that pushes you to track,” says Amati. “We have worked with specialist dietitians to make sure that our app is very positive and that it essentially minimizes any risk of being detrimental. But we are very open to the fact that we haven’t been designed with disordered eating in mind as a primary focus point.”
Ti adds that this app may not be right for pregnant or breastfeeding individuals, because metabolic and nutrient needs shift significantly during pregnancy and lactation.
How much does the Zoe app cost?
As someone who’s always looking to save money where I can, price is typically the first thing I consider when evaluating any product, service or app.
There is the free Zoe app and the ad-free Zoe Plus, which costs $100 per year or $16 per month. The Plus version offers personalized scores to help you make better food choices and allows you to upload your blood tests. I’ve been testing the Plus version, which the company has allowed me to use at no cost; however, I didn’t provide my blood test results.
Previously, the app required members to obtain Zoe’s membership and undergo a gut health test, which involved wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for up to 14 days and collecting one-time blood and stool samples. This membership and test are currently sold out, as the new testing experience and app are scheduled to launch by the end of 2025.
Ultimately, I enjoyed certain features on the Zoe app but felt others weren’t useful. I subscribe to the notion that knowledge is power, especially with the food we put into our bodies and this app helped guide me in making informed decisions about my food choices. However, balance is equally important and if you feel that tracking and scoring your food will disrupt a balanced approach to eating, then this app and others like it may not be the key to unlock your healthy eating.
Source: CNET.
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