Description
CodeCheck is a German-language app and website that scans the barcode of a cosmetic, food or household product and rates its ingredients, with special ratings from BUND for microplastics and parabens and from WWF for palm oil.
The database was started in Switzerland in 2002 by Roman Bleichenbacher. The app launched in Switzerland in 2010 and in Germany and Austria in 2014. After the company behind it went into insolvency in November 2021, Producto Check GmbH in Berlin took it over in 2022. CodeCheck rates more than 6,000 cosmetic ingredients and shows the result as a red-to-green circle, which users can adjust to their own concerns. BUND’s ToxFox app uses CodeCheck’s data, and label information comes from partners such as WWF, the Verbraucher Initiative and the Vienna Chamber of Labour.
The app is free. CodeCheck PLUS, an in-app subscription, removes the ads and adds personal lists. The company says most of its money comes from those subscriptions, the rest from display and native advertising, licensing its data to other firms and affiliate commissions, and that advertisers have no influence on the ratings. Its privacy policy names services such as Firebase, HubSpot and AWS and uses an ad-industry consent framework. Verbraucherzentrale NRW reviewed the app in May 2025.
Strengths
- The BUND rating for microplastics and parabens and the WWF palm oil rating come from environmental organisations, not from the brands.
- Scanning and the basic ratings are free, and the colour circle can be set to the ingredients a user cares about.
- It covers cosmetics, food, household and pet products in one app, for shops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Weaknesses
- The free version shows ads, and the company also earns from data licensing and affiliate links; Utopia found it should improve on transparency and data protection.
- Öko-Test once criticised the app for relying on its cosmetics lists that were up to 16 years old.
- It is a commercial service that has changed owner after an insolvency, unlike the open database Open Food Facts.
Who it is for
Shoppers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who want to check microplastics, parabens or palm oil in a shampoo or a snack while standing in the shop, and accept ads or pay for PLUS.
Sources
- CodeCheck: home, about us, rating circle, business model, privacy, legal notice (checked November 2026)
- Verbraucherzentrale NRW: App-Test CodeCheck
- Utopia: CodeCheck-App, Inhaltsstoffe per Handy auslesen
- Utopia: CodeCheck-Alternative