Primo Gluten: Ingredient Check

Primo Gluten is a celiac app and gluten free scanner that tells you whether a packaged food contains gluten, from one photo of the pack.

Most gluten free scanner apps are a barcode lookup over a product database. If the product is not in that database they have no answer, and if the entry is out of date the answer can be wrong. Primo Gluten reads the printed ingredients panel itself, so a store brand, a regional product or something launched last week is still a scan. It is a food label scanner and ingredient checker in one: ask "is it gluten free?" and get the answer from the label in your hand.

HOW A SCAN WORKS - Point the camera at the pack and take one photo - If there is a barcode, the product is looked up in the Open Food Facts database - If there is no barcode, or the record has no ingredients, the app reads the ingredients panel straight from your photo - You get a verdict, the ingredient or statement behind it, and where the answer came from

WHAT THE RESULT TELLS YOU - One of four verdicts: No gluten found, Contains gluten, Caution, or Cannot determine - The exact ingredient or allergen statement that decided it - "May contain" and shared line warnings shown on their own, never folded into the verdict - Oats called out separately, because oats are often milled beside wheat and only oats the pack states are gluten free are cleared - Every ingredient marked as Gluten, Possible gluten, Unknown or No gluten - The source of the answer: your own label photo, or the database record with the date it was last edited

HONEST WHEN IT DOES NOT KNOW An ingredient the app cannot recognize returns Cannot determine instead of a guess. A blurred or half cropped panel returns Cannot determine and asks for a better photo. When the pack in your hand disagrees with the database record, the pack wins and both are shown. That is the whole point: a scanner that is confidently wrong is worse than one that says it does not know.

WHAT IT KNOWS - Wheat and its forms: spelt, durum, semolina, farro, einkorn, emmer, khorasan, bulgur, couscous, seitan - Rye, barley, triticale, and barley forms such as malt, malt extract and malt vinegar - Ingredients whose origin is often unstated: starch, modified starch, dextrin, natural flavouring, yeast extract, soy sauce - The EU exemptions, so wheat glucose syrup, wheat maltodextrin and distilled alcohol are not treated as sources - Printed gluten free claims and the crossed grain symbol, reported as a claim rather than as proof

WHO IT IS FOR - Celiac and coeliac disease - Non celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy - Anyone on a gluten free diet, and anyone cooking, shopping or packing lunches for them - Reading unfamiliar labels abroad

This is a gluten scanner, not a general allergy scanner. It reads one thing and reports it properly, rather than covering every allergen shallowly.

HISTORY ON YOUR DEVICE Every scan is kept on the phone so you can look up a product you checked last month. Nothing needs an account and there is nothing to sign up for. A photo is sent for reading only after you allow it, and it is not retained.

FREE AND PREMIUM You get free scans to try it. Premium removes the scan limit and comes as a weekly or a yearly subscription, both with a free trial. The price is shown in the app before you confirm. A subscription renews until it is cancelled in your App Store account settings.

DATA SOURCE Product information comes from Open Food Facts, made available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Its contents are available under the Database Contents License.

IMPORTANT Primo Gluten is an information tool. It is not medical advice, it is not a diagnosis, and it cannot guarantee that a product is safe for you. Ingredients and manufacturing change, and databases go out of date. Always check the pack, and ask the manufacturer when it matters.

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