Launching in the United States
Yes or no. Nothing in between.
Veto scans a product and answers Yes or No. Any Harmful Ingredient, any Unreviewed Ingredient, any active Recall, any missing ingredient list, or any hit on your own allergen and diet rules means No.
Available now on iPhone.
Android: join the waitlist
USA first, then Canada and the EU. One email when we launch, nothing else.
LIVE RULING DEMO
Try a ruling.
Tap a product, or type any US barcode.
Paired verdict comparison
SAME CATEGORY · SPREADS
Nutella
Nutella, FERRERO FRANCE COMMERCIALE
Organic Creamy Peanut Butter
Kirkland
Static pairing for illustration — Nutella and Kirkland Organic Creamy Peanut Butter, real US catalogue barcodes from the curated twelve.
A personal-care ruling
PERSONAL CARE · TOOTHPASTE
Peppermint Fluoride Toothpaste
365, Whole foods market
One reason: sodium monofluorophosphate, a fluoride. Fluoride fails Veto's standard in every product — Veto's own precautionary opinion, not a regulator's ruling.
Veto scans toothpaste, deodorant and other personal care the same way it scans food. We haven't found a fluoride-free toothpaste that clears yet, so there is no Yes to set beside this No. Coverage grows as more personal-care ingredients are reviewed.
Static ruling for illustration — a real Open Beauty Facts barcode, checked against the live Veto API on 2026-09-30.
Why trust Veto
- Every No has a cited Reason
- Unreviewed always means No, we never guess
- No ads, no manufacturer money, ever
- Delete your data anytime
Where we are right now
- Ingredients reviewed
- 25,862
- Cleared
- 23,564
- Sources cited
- 6,539
Updated September 30, 2026 from the Review pipeline; counts change with every deploy.
Pass rates by category arrive once nightly Verdict precomputation exists.
What Yes and No actually mean
A Verdict is Yes or No. Not a percentage, not a colour band, not "moderate" — there is no third state. Behind that one word, every Ingredient on the label has exactly one Status:
- Cleared
- Reviewed, and no credible signal of harm was found. Only Cleared Ingredients count toward a Yes.
- Harmful
- Reviewed, and at least one credible signal of harm was found. Always comes with a written, cited Rationale.
- Unreviewed
- Not yet reviewed, or not identified. Treated as a No — but shown to you as unreviewed, never called harmful when it hasn't been checked.
A Yes needs every Ingredient Cleared. A No always tells you why: its Reasons, and they show in this order:
- Recall
- Harmful ingredient
- Personal Rule
- Unreviewed
An active Recall overrides everything else, which is why it comes first. A Harmful Ingredient outranks a Personal Rule, because the Harmful call is Veto's own opinion about everyone; your Personal Rule only ever adds a No for you. Unreviewed comes last — not because it matters least, but because it is the most honest thing Veto can say: it hasn't checked yet.
The Standard
Veto applies one Universal Rule to every product, for every user: an Ingredient is Harmful when there is any credible signal of harm to a typical person — however small, however contested. Veto does not wait for a regulatory ban to say so, and it does not ask what you personally think is acceptable. It is one opinion, applied the same way to everyone.
Note · Why this fails
Most products fail this standard at launch. Added sugar, alcohol, caffeine, fluoride and aluminium all fail Veto's Universal Rule today, the same as any other ingredient with a credible signal of harm, however small or contested. That is not a defect to fix — it is the standard working as intended. Veto's value is in finding the few products that pass.
A Harmful call never claims regulatory action that doesn't exist. Every Harmful Ingredient's Rationale is scoped to that one named substance, carries its citations, and is worded as Veto's own precautionary opinion — stating only what a regulator has actually done, never more. Fluoride and aluminium, for example, are only concentration-restricted, not prohibited outright; Veto's Rationale for them says exactly that.
How an Ingredient earns Cleared
Every Ingredient goes through the same automated Review, in the same order, before it can be Cleared:
- Regulator lists, checked first. Before anything else runs, the Ingredient is checked against deterministic regulator and safety lists. A hit on any one of them is enough: the Ingredient is Harmful immediately, cited to that list.
- EU Cosmetics Regulation Annex II and III
- California Prop 65 and AB 2762
- IARC carcinogen classifications
- ECHA SVHC Candidate List
- Health Canada Hotlist
- FDA actions
- Independent research passes. Clearing the lists is not enough on its own. Several separate, independent research passes each look for any credible signal of harm to a typical person. A single pass finding one signal is enough to make the Ingredient Harmful.
- Cleared only when every pass comes back empty. An Ingredient becomes Cleared only after the regulator-list check and every research pass finds nothing.
Every Status keeps its citations, its full research transcript, and the date it was last reviewed — whether the Ingredient ended up Cleared or Harmful. Cleared is never final: Ingredients are re-reviewed on a schedule, and a Status change re-checks any Verdict that depended on it.
- No human sign-off on any Status, ever.
- No manufacturer submissions accepted into the Review.
- No dispute button — the Rationale, its citations, and the next scheduled re-Review are the correction mechanism.
Independence
A No about a real brand is only worth trusting if Veto has no commercial relationship with that brand, or any other. So it doesn't have one, with anyone, ever:
- No ads, ever.
- No sponsored placement on Alternatives.
- No affiliate links or commissions.
- No selling or licensing data.
These are permanent constraints, not marketing lines. Veto's revenue comes only from subscriptions — the paid tier has to carry the whole business on its own.
Personal Rules
A Personal Rule is a restriction you add for your own body: a recognised allergen, or a diet. A match — including a product's own "may contain" or "traces of" statement — makes the Verdict No for you, even on a product that's Cleared for everyone else.
Allergens
- Milk
- Egg
- Fish
- Crustacean shellfish
- Mollusc
- Tree nut
- Peanut
- Wheat
- Cereals containing gluten
- Soy
- Sesame
- Celery
- Mustard
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
- Lupin
Diets
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
- Lactose-free
Note · Personal Rules only add Nos
A Personal Rule can only add Nos, never override a Harmful Ingredient. Your profile can turn a Cleared product into a No just for you — it can never turn a Harmful Ingredient into a Yes.
Halal and Kosher rules are not supported yet. Both depend on reading certification marks on packaging, and Veto can't do that reliably today — so we say "not supported" rather than guess.
Recalls
Recalls come from two regulator sources, normalised into one record with a status and a termination date:
USDA FSIS recalls (meat, poultry and egg products) are not covered yet.
Cosmetic recalls are not covered either: Veto reads no cosmetics recall feed, so a personal-care product is checked against its ingredients, not against cosmetic recalls.
A Recall is matched to a product by its barcode when the notice carries one — most US and Canadian notices don't — or otherwise by an exact brand match plus a close product-name match, never a loose guess. When a Recall matches, the Verdict is No regardless of ingredients or lot; lot codes are shown on the No screen for information only.
Ground 1 · Active Recall
A terminated Recall stops counting. Once the issuing agency closes it, it no longer makes the Verdict No — a resolved recall from years ago doesn't produce a permanent No.
Privacy
- Aggregate scan counts, not you
- Anonymous, aggregate scan counts per barcode are kept for everyone — they order the Review queue and build the popular-products pack. They aren't tied to your account.
- Personal history is opt-in and deletable
- A personal scan history exists only if you subscribe. You can delete it, and your account, from inside the app at any time.
- Sign in with Apple or Google
- One tap.
- No third-party trackers
- No ad network, no analytics beacon selling your activity. This site is built with zero third-party requests, and the product carries the same independence commitment.
- No data sales
- Not to anyone, ever — the same permanent commitment as no ads and no manufacturer money.
Limits
Disclosure · First Launch
Veto is a precautionary opinion, not medical advice, does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent anything. If you have a medical condition, talk to a clinician.
Veto shows this on first launch, before you've scanned a single product — not because a store required it, but because you should know what you're reading before you trust a Verdict.
Unreviewed doesn't mean dangerous, it means we haven't finished the research yet.
Where Veto is limited today
- Most products fail. Under a precautionary standard, common ingredients like added sugar, fluoride and aluminium are Harmful, so most products are No at launch — the goal is finding the few that pass, not clearing everything on the shelf.
- Personal care is newer than food. Veto scans toothpaste, deodorant and similar products the same way, but an ingredient we haven't reviewed yet counts as a No, and coverage grows as more ingredients are reviewed.
- Cosmetic recalls are not covered. Recall matching reads the FDA's food and drug enforcement reports and the CPSC's recall feed, and neither is a cosmetics feed.
- United States only at launch. Canada and the EU come later.
- Veto's iOS app is live on the App Store. Android isn't yet — join the list to hear the moment it is.
Sources
Every regulator list and product database Veto's Review pipeline reads from, plus the map data behind nearby shops, linked to its own primary page. Deterministic checks against the regulator lists run before any research pass.
- US Prop 65 — California's list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive harm.
- IARC — The International Agency for Research on Cancer's classifications of carcinogenic hazard.
- FDA actions — The FDA's own list of food chemicals under active review or already withdrawn from use.
- EU Cosmetics Annex II — Substances prohibited in cosmetic products under EU Regulation 1223/2009.
- EU Cosmetics Annex III — Substances restricted in cosmetic products under the same regulation.
- EU CosIng — The European Commission's cosmetic ingredient database, where the EU Cosmetics Annex lists above are read from. © European Union, European Commission, CosIng database; reused under CC BY 4.0, converted from CSV to JSON with long condition texts shortened.
- California CSCP — The California Department of Public Health's list of cosmetic ingredients that makers must report under its CSCP program. Only its facts are used, each cited to CDPH.
- ECHA SVHC Candidate List — The European Chemicals Agency's Candidate List of substances of very high concern.
- Health Canada Hotlist — Canada's list of prohibited and restricted cosmetic ingredients. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada.
- EU food additive withdrawals — EU actions withdrawing a food additive's authorisation, such as titanium dioxide (E171).
- Open Food Facts — The open product and ingredient database Veto's ingredient registry is built on.
- Open Beauty Facts — The open database of personal-care and cosmetic products and their ingredient lists, under the same ODbL 1.0 licence as Open Food Facts.
- Open Products Facts — The open database of other everyday products that are neither food nor cosmetics, under the same ODbL 1.0 licence.
- USDA branded foods — USDA FoodData Central's branded-food ingredient records, a US supplement to Open Food Facts.
- openFDA — The FDA's public food and drug enforcement data, one of Veto's recall feeds.
- CPSC — The Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall data.
- OpenStreetMap — Shop locations © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under ODbL 1.0. They power the nearby-shops picker and in-shop Alternatives.
Data from Open Food Facts / Open Beauty Facts, https://world.openfoodfacts.org, https://world.openbeautyfacts.org — ODbL 1.0 licensed.
Veto is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of any agency named above.
Pricing
Free forever covers the whole safety promise. Veto Plus is $4.99/month or $49.99/year, with a one-time 7-day free trial — full subscription terms.
Free forever
- scan
- Verdict
- Reasons
- Label Capture
- one profile
Subscriber — $4.99/mo or $49.99/yr
- History
- Search
- Alternatives
- Family profiles
The free tier is the whole safety promise: scan, Verdict, Reasons, Label Capture, and one profile cost nothing, forever. A subscription pays for convenience on top of it — not for the answer itself.
Label Capture and Alternatives
Product not in our data yet?
Photograph the ingredient list. Label Capture reads it the same way any database entry gets read, and you get a Verdict within seconds.
Your capture is saved as a Contributed Product, so the next person who scans that barcode gets an instant Verdict too. It's shown as unverified until reviewed — a later official source replaces it automatically once one exists.
Got a No you didn't want?
Alternatives shows other products in the same category, in your market, whose Verdict is Yes — a subscriber feature.
Ranked never by who paid: no ads, no sponsored placement, no affiliate links, on Alternatives or anywhere else on Veto. An empty list says so plainly rather than padding itself out.
FAQ
What does a No mean?
No means at least one Reason fired for that Product: a Harmful Ingredient, an Unreviewed Ingredient, an active Recall, or one of your own Personal Rules. Every No lists which Reason (or Reasons) caused it -- Veto never says No without saying why.
Why do most products fail at first?
Veto's Universal Rule is precautionary: an Ingredient is Harmful if there is any credible signal of harm to a typical person, however small or contested -- no regulatory ban required. Added sugar, alcohol, caffeine, fluoride and aluminium all fail that standard today, and so do most products at launch. Personal care, such as toothpaste and deodorant, is held to the same standard, and an ingredient Veto hasn't reviewed yet counts as a No, so coverage there grows over time. That isn't a bug to fix; it's the standard working as intended. Veto's value is in finding the few products that pass, not in making everything pass.
What does Unreviewed mean?
Unreviewed means Veto hasn't finished researching that Ingredient yet, or couldn't identify it from the label -- not that it's dangerous. It's treated as a No, because an unknown ingredient doesn't get the benefit of the doubt, but it's shown to you honestly as unreviewed, never called Harmful before Veto has actually checked.
How does an Ingredient earn Cleared?
Every Ingredient goes through the same automated Review, in the same order. First, a deterministic check against six regulator and safety lists (EU Cosmetics Annex II and III, California Prop 65 and AB 2762, IARC, ECHA SVHC, Health Canada Hotlist, FDA actions) -- a hit on any one is Harmful immediately. Only if none of those lists hit does Veto run several independent research passes, each looking for any credible signal of harm; a single pass finding one signal is enough for Harmful. An Ingredient becomes Cleared only when the regulator-list check and every research pass come back empty -- and Cleared is never final: Ingredients are re-reviewed on a schedule.
Does Veto take money from brands?
No. Veto takes no money from manufacturers, shows no ads, and sells no data -- revenue comes only from subscriptions. No affiliate links, no sponsored placement on Alternatives, no brand partnerships, no data licensing, ever, even when offered.
I found wrong ingredient text, or a scan that wouldn't read
Write to support@foodveto.com. This address exists to fix problems like a misread label or a barcode that won't scan -- a wrong Label Capture result gets corrected, the same way any data-quality report would.
Can I dispute a Verdict?
No -- there is no dispute mechanism. Ingredient Review runs fully automatically with no human approval step and no channel for a user or a manufacturer to challenge a Status. The only ways a Status can change are its own scheduled re-Review, or new evidence surfacing in a later research pass -- never a request from anyone, including Veto's own founder.
Do you use tracking cookies?
No: cookie-free aggregate analytics only, nothing that identifies you or needs a cookie banner.
Which markets is Veto launching in?
United States first. Canada and the EU come after that -- in that order, with no date set yet for either.
When do the apps launch?
iOS is live in the App Store today. Android isn't yet -- join the waitlist above and you'll get one email the moment it is, nothing else.
Get Veto
Available now on iPhone.
Android: join the waitlist
USA first, then Canada and the EU. One email when we launch, nothing else.