Hey Conscious – Terms and Conditions

Version 1.0, last updated 8 October 2026.

Important: Hey Conscious does not give health, medical, nutritional or allergy advice. Our scores and recommendations are general information produced by a method. They are not advice and are not a substitute for a qualified healthcare professional or for reading the label on the product. If you have an allergy, intolerance or medical condition, always check the label and ask a professional. Do not use the Services for medical purposes. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

1. About these Terms

1.1 Who we are. These Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you and Hey Conscious Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16387779) (“Hey Conscious”, “we”, “us”, “our”). You can contact us at hello@heyconscious.com.

1.2 What they cover. The Terms apply to the Hey Conscious mobile app, our website at www.heyconscious.com, and related tools, features, content and services (together the “Services”). The Services let you scan product barcodes, see health and planet scores, and see suggested alternatives.

1.3 What forms part of the agreement. The Terms include (a) our Privacy Policy, (b) our Scoring Methodology and Data Sources notice (the “Methodology”), and (c) any extra terms shown for a particular feature, such as a subscription. If they conflict, the Methodology governs how scores are calculated and these Terms govern everything else.

1.4 Acceptance. By creating an account, downloading or using the Services you agree to the Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

1.5 Definitions.

“Account” means your registered profile, including if you sign in with Apple.
“App Store” means the Apple App Store.
“Content” means text, images, data, scores, ratings, logos and other material on the Services.
“Database” means the collection of product, ingredient, nutrition and environmental data and scores used by the Services.
“Health Score” and “Planet Score” mean the scores shown in the app as “For you” and “For the planet”.
“Premium” means our paid subscription tier.
“Product” means any item identified by barcode or search in the Services.

2. Eligibility and your Account

2.1 Age. You must be at least 16 to use the Services and at least 18 to buy Premium. If you are under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to the Terms for you and supervise your use.

2.2 Registration and security. You can create an Account with an email address or Sign in with Apple. Give accurate information, keep your login details secure and do not share your Account. You are responsible for activity on your Account unless it results from our failure to protect it. Tell us promptly if you think it has been compromised.

2.3 Data on your device. Much of your information, including scan history, is stored on your device and not on our servers. We may not be able to recover it if you lose or reset your device or delete the app, so you are responsible for backing it up.

2.4 Closing your Account. You can delete your Account in the app or by emailing us. Deleting it does not cancel a Premium subscription bought through an App Store; cancel that separately (section 10). We may close Accounts inactive for more than 24 months after 30 days’ notice by email.

3. Licence to use the app

3.1 Our licence to you. Subject to the Terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use.

3.2 What you must not do. You must not copy, modify, reverse engineer or create derivative works of the app (except as the law allows), sell, rent or sublicense the Services, or use bots, scrapers or automated means to extract Content or the Database.

3.3 App Store terms. If you got the app from an App Store you must also follow that store’s terms. This agreement is between you and Hey Conscious only, not Apple or the store, which have no obligation to support the app. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms insofar as they relate to your use of an iOS app and may enforce them against you. Apple is not responsible for maintenance or support, for any warranty beyond what the law requires (Apple will refund the purchase price of a paid app), or for claims about the app, including product liability, legal compliance or intellectual property claims.

3.4 Updates and availability. We may update, change or suspend features. We aim to keep the Services available but do not promise uninterrupted or error-free access. Many features need an internet connection.

4. Information, not advice

4.1 Not medical or professional advice. The Services provide general information only. Nothing in them is medical, nutritional, dietetic, allergy, environmental, legal or other professional advice, and you must not use them to diagnose, treat or prevent any condition, to decide on medication or to manage a medical diet. They are not a medical device. Do not ignore or delay professional advice because of something you saw in the Services.

4.2 Allergies and intolerances. Do not rely on the Services to decide whether a Product is safe for you if you have an allergy, intolerance, coeliac disease or any other medical or dietary condition. Recipes change, the same barcode can cover different recipes in different countries, and our data may be incomplete or wrong. Allergen and preference features are a convenience filter only. Always read the physical label on the Product you are buying or eating.

4.3 Vulnerable groups and sensitive users. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, buying for an infant or child, taking medication or managing a health condition, speak to a healthcare professional. Scores for food may not suit people who have experienced an eating disorder or who find numbers or labels on food distressing. If that applies to you, please consider not using the Services and speak to a professional.

4.4 No guarantee. A high score does not mean a Product is safe, healthy or suitable for you, and a low score does not mean it is unsafe or harmful. A score is not a statement that a Product complies, or fails to comply, with any law or standard, or about the manufacturer’s conduct. Using the Services does not guarantee better health or a lower environmental impact.

4.5 Your risk. To the extent the law allows, and subject to section 13.1 and your statutory rights, you use the Services at your own risk and are responsible for how you use the information in them.

5. Where our data comes from

5.1 Our Database. The Database is not a copy of any one source. We designed its structure, its criteria and weightings, and the rules for capturing and scoring data. Every Product is held in the same structure: its identity (barcode, name, brand, category and country), ingredients, nutrition and packaging, and an assessment against each health (“For you”) and planet (“For the planet”) criterion in the Methodology. That common structure is what lets us compare Products and find Alternatives. The Database is built to hold a very large number of Products. We start with those we expect to be scanned most often in the UK, and it grows as people scan, as we add sources and as we receive corrections. Data is matched to a barcode, checked against our rules and stored. It comes from:

Open data. Open Food Facts and Open Products Facts, collaborative databases built by volunteers and brands under open licences (section 11).
Published ratings. Nutri-Score, NOVA and Green-Score, produced by others and used as published.
Public scientific and regulatory sources. For example EFSA, ANSES, the UK Food Standards Agency, ECHA, IARC and life-cycle datasets such as Agribalyse.
Licensed third-party datasets. Licensed from third parties and subject to their owners’ terms. We will list categories here as they are added.
Our own research. Where data is missing, incomplete or new, we research it, including by using AI tools to search retailer, brand and certification websites and to structure what they find into our Database format.
Brand information. Information supplied by brands and corrections we accept (section 14).

5.2 No independent testing. We do not test or inspect Products ourselves or independently verify every piece of source data. Our scores reflect the data we hold, not the actual contents of the Product in your hand.

5.3 Accuracy. We work to keep the Database accurate and current, but data may be incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, wrongly matched to a barcode, or specific to another country or batch. We do not guarantee that any Product, ingredient, nutrition, certification or impact data is accurate, complete or current. If we do not recognise a barcode we may look it up live or show no result. Where data is incomplete we may show a partial score, a lower-confidence score or none, as the Methodology explains.

5.4 How we use AI. We decide what we measure and how. The Database structure, criteria, weightings and scoring formula are ours and apply in the same way to every Product, and the final scores are always calculated by our formula, not by AI. AI is a supporting tool, used mainly to fill gaps and gather new or missing data. When you scan a Product we have not assessed before, we first use the data we already hold and published sources. Where information is still missing, we may use AI models from third-party providers (we may use more than one) to search the web and open product databases, to help identify the Product, to find and structure missing information, to help assess it against our criteria, to flag recognised concerns and to draft summaries. What they find is checked against our rules before it is stored. We also use AI to help find Alternatives (section 7). We send AI providers product information and a country, never information that identifies you. AI can make mistakes. It may misidentify a Product, misread a source, rely on an incorrect or out-of-date web page, miss information or infer something the evidence does not support. Assessments are stored and reused, so an error can repeat until we correct it. We manage our datasets closely, including format and range validation, checks against our rules and criteria, cross-checks against other sources, and human sampling and review, but we cannot guarantee every assessment is correct.

5.5 Reporting errors. If you spot an error, tell us in the app or at hello@heyconscious.com. We will review it but do not promise to change any data or score.

6. How scoring works

6.1 What the scores are. For each Product we may show a “For you” score (Health Score) and a “For the planet” score (Planet Score) from 1 (worst) to 10 (best), each with a word and colour: Bad, Poor, Fair, Good or Excellent for “For you”, and Extra Heavy, Heavy, Fair, Light or Extra Light for “For the planet”. We also show an overall score, the average of the two rounded to a whole number, when both are available.

6.2 How they are compiled. Scores follow the Methodology, which is published at www.heyconscious.com/methodology and forms part of these Terms. Products are assessed as Food or Household. Each half is compiled from a set of weighted criteria. In outline, Food is assessed on nutrition, additives and processing (“For you”) and on production, packaging, origin, and nature and water (“For the planet”). Household is assessed on ingredient safety, irritants and allergens, and on packaging, ingredient impact, origin and production. The Methodology sets out each criterion’s weighting, how published ratings are used, how warnings affect scores and the formula. The criteria, weightings and formula are the same for every Product. The data behind each criterion comes from the Database, from published ratings and, where information is missing, from AI-assisted research (section 5.4).

6.3 Scores are our opinion, not fact. A score is our methodology-based assessment. It involves judgement about which factors matter, how much they weigh and where thresholds sit, and reasonable experts may disagree. Scores are not statements of fact, scientific conclusions, certifications, official ratings or findings about any brand, manufacturer or retailer. Words such as “good” or “poor” describe the score only, not the quality or safety of the Product. A “Bad” or “Poor” score does not mean a Product is unsafe or unfit to eat or use, and a “Good” or “Excellent” score does not mean it is safe or suitable for you.

6.4 Limits.

Scores depend on the quality of the source data and of any AI-assisted research, and can change if the data or Methodology changes.
Where information is missing, some criterion scores may be inferred rather than backed by direct evidence.
Where a published rating exists we use it, and it carries its own limits.
Planet scores rely on averaged or modelled data and are not a life-cycle assessment of the specific Product, supply chain or batch.
Where a criterion cannot be scored we leave it out and rebalance the rest. If a whole half cannot be scored we show no score for it.
A stored assessment is reused for later scans and may not reflect a later change to the recipe or packaging.
Scores are most useful for comparing similar Products. They are currently the same for every user.

6.5 Changes. Nutrition and environmental science evolve and some impacts are disputed. We may update the Methodology, weightings or data at any time to improve accuracy or reflect new evidence, and scores may change without notice. We keep a changelog at www.heyconscious.com/methodology.

6.6 Independence. No brand, retailer, advertiser, sponsor or affiliate partner can pay for, or otherwise influence, a score, a Flag or an Alternative. The same Methodology applies to every Product and we do not manually adjust a Product’s score for commercial reasons.

6.7 Not an eco-label. The Planet Score is our own rating, not a certification, eco-label or environmental claim by the manufacturer, and must not be presented as one. Nobody may use our scores in advertising or marketing without our written permission.

6.8 Warnings (Flags). Where a recognised source supports it (for example IARC classifications, EFSA or ECHA assessments, or certification standards), an assessment may show a warning about an ingredient or practice. A Flag reports that a recognised source has identified a concern. It is not our own finding that a Product is harmful, unlawful or unethical, or that any company has done anything wrong, and it does not tell you whether the amount in a Product is harmful. Flags limit the relevant score as the Methodology describes. They can be wrong or out of date, and we review corrections under section 14.

7. How recommendations are made

7.1 What they are. When you scan a Product, the app may show up to five “Alternatives”: Products in the same category that our method suggests may do better on at least one of the two scores. They are general suggestions generated automatically. They are not personal recommendations or advice, and they are about products, not about you.

7.2 How Alternatives are chosen. Alternatives are assessed with the same Database structure and Methodology as every other Product. We look for Products that (a) are in the same category and do the same job, (b) appear to be sold in your country (worked out from your connection, defaulting to the UK), ideally in a major supermarket, and (c) are likely to score better on at least one of the two scores without being clearly worse on the other. Where candidates are not already in the Database, we may use AI to search the web for them, and each candidate is then assessed and checked in the same way as any other Product. Alternatives are ranked by the average of their two scores, highest first. They are not currently personalised, and your thumbs-up, thumbs-down and shopping list do not change them. The Methodology has more detail.

7.3 Limits. We do not currently run a separate check that an Alternative scores higher than the Product you scanned or is sold near you. An Alternative may score the same or lower, may be out of stock or discontinued, and may not be a perfect substitute. We do not promise that an Alternative suits you, is the best on the market or is competitively priced. The Database does not cover every Product or retailer, so a better option may exist that we do not show. Prices and availability are controlled by retailers. If you would like a person to review how an Alternative was reached, contact us.

7.4 Independence. We carry no advertising and accept no sponsorship from brands or corporations. No brand or retailer can pay to be recommended, ranked higher or have a score changed, and we do not sell your personal data. We have no contractual or financial ties with the producers or distributors of the Products we assess.

7.5 Affiliate links. We do not currently earn commission from links in the Services. If we add affiliate links we will label any link that may earn us commission, and commission will not affect any score, ranking or Alternative.

7.6 Prices and other comparison information. Where we show prices, tariffs or switching options (for example, energy), the information comes from public sources and partners and may be incomplete or out of date. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or Ofgem and do not give regulated advice. Check the provider’s own terms and price before you switch or buy.

8. Third parties, brands and links

8.1 Brands and trade marks. Product names, brand names, logos and images belong to their owners and are shown only to identify Products and give information. Their use does not mean the owner is connected to or endorses us, and our scores imply neither endorsement nor criticism.

8.2 Third-party content and dealings. The Services may link to or show content from retailers, researchers, comparison partners or data providers. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, prices, products or practices. Their own terms apply. Any purchase or switch you make is between you and them.

9. Content you send us

9.1 No user submissions at present. The Services do not currently let you add Products, upload photos or submit data. If we add that, extra terms will apply and you will need to accept them before you can submit anything.

9.2 Feedback and error reports. Anything you send us, such as feedback or an error report, is covered by section 11.5. Do not send us anything unlawful or personal information about other people.

10. Free features, Premium and payment

10.1 Free and paid features. Most features are free. Some need a paid Premium subscription. The features included, and the current price, are shown in the app before you buy. Prices include VAT or other sales tax where required.

10.2 How you buy. You buy Premium through an App Store, whose payment, billing and refund terms also apply.

10.3 Automatic renewal and trials. Premium renews automatically at the end of each billing period (as shown when you buy) at the then-current price until you cancel. We will show you the renewal price and period before you pay and send any reminders the law requires. If we offer a free trial or introductory price, it converts to a paid subscription at the price shown unless you cancel before it ends.

10.4 How to cancel. You can cancel at any time, as easily as you signed up. If you subscribed through an App Store, cancel in your App Store account settings. You keep Premium until the end of the period you have paid for. Except where the law or section 10.6 says otherwise, fees for a period already started are not refunded.

10.5 Price changes and failed payments. We may change Premium prices on at least 30 days’ notice, and you can cancel before the change takes effect. If a payment fails, we or the App Store may retry and we may suspend Premium until it is paid.

10.6 Right to cancel. Premium is bought through the App Store, so the store’s cancellation and refund process applies. If we ever sell Premium directly to UK consumers, you will have 14 days from subscribing to cancel without giving a reason. If you ask us to start Premium during that period you will pay a proportionate amount for what you have used up to cancellation, and you lose the right to cancel once the service has been fully provided.

10.7 Faulty digital content. Your statutory rights are not affected. If Premium or other paid digital content is faulty, not as described or not fit for purpose, UK and EU consumers can claim the remedies the law provides, such as repair, price reduction or refund.

11. Intellectual property and open data

11.1 Our rights. Hey Conscious and its licensors own all rights in the Services, including the app, software, design, branding, Methodology, scores, and our compilation and original content in the Database. Except for the licence in section 3, the Terms give you no rights in them. “Hey Conscious” and our logos are our trade marks and may not be used without permission.

11.2 Open data attribution. Some Database content comes from Open Food Facts, Open Products Facts and similar projects. Their data is made available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL), individual contents under the Database Contents Licence (DbCL), and product images under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-SA). We acknowledge “Open Food Facts contributors” as the source, and our full attribution notice is at www.heyconscious.com/methodology and in the app under Account › About › Acknowledgements.

11.3 Licensed third-party data. Third-party data is licensed to us on terms that may limit its use. You must not extract or reuse it separately from the Services.

11.4 Using our scores. You may share individual scores for personal, non-commercial purposes if you attribute them to Hey Conscious. You must not use scores, logos or our name in advertising or on packaging, or imply that we endorse a Product, without our written permission.

11.5 Feedback. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without restriction or payment.

12. Acceptable use

You must not:

break the law or infringe anyone’s rights;
submit false, misleading, defamatory, harassing, hateful or unlawful content;
scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-download the Database or any Content, or use it to build a competing product or train AI models, without our written agreement;
interfere with, overload or try to gain unauthorised access to the Services, our systems or other users’ Accounts, or upload malware;
use the Services to manipulate scores, rankings or recommendations, or to promote a brand;
misrepresent your identity or pretend to be us or a brand; or
use the Services for any commercial purpose without our written permission.

If you breach this section we may remove content, suspend or close your Account, and take legal action.

13. Disclaimers and limits on our liability

13.1 What we do not limit. Nothing in the Terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit. Your statutory consumer rights are not affected.

13.2 Services as they are. To the fullest extent the law allows, and subject to 13.1 and your statutory rights, the Services, Database, scores and recommendations are provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not promise that they are accurate, complete, current, error-free, uninterrupted or suitable for your purposes, or that any score or recommendation is correct or appropriate for you.

13.3 Your responsibility. You are responsible for your decisions about what to buy, eat, use or switch to. Check labels and use your own judgement, particularly for allergies and health conditions (section 4).

13.4 Liability to consumers. If you are a consumer, we are responsible for foreseeable loss and damage caused by our breach of the Terms or our negligence. Loss is foreseeable if it was an obvious consequence of our breach or if you and we both knew it might happen when you started using the Services. We are not responsible for other loss, or for loss caused by your not following the Terms or by events beyond our reasonable control. The Services are for domestic and private use, and we are not liable for loss of profit, business, revenue or opportunity.

13.5 Limit for other users. This section applies to users who are not consumers, and where the law allows. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for loss of profit, data, goodwill or opportunity, and our total liability for all claims arising from the Services is limited to the greater of (a) what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose and (b) £100. If you are not a consumer you also agree to cover our losses and reasonable costs from third-party claims arising from your breach of the Terms or the law.

13.6 Content from others. We are not responsible for third-party data or websites, or the products, services or acts of brands, retailers and providers.

14. Brand corrections, complaints and takedowns

14.1 Brands and manufacturers. If you are a brand owner or manufacturer and believe our data about your Product is factually wrong or out of date, email hello@heyconscious.com with the barcode, the correction you request and supporting evidence, such as a current label image. We will review it within 10 business days and update factual data where we are satisfied it is wrong. We do not change a score, ranking or recommendation because a brand asks, and we accept no payment or other benefit in connection with a correction. A score changes only if the underlying data or Methodology changes. We will explain how the Methodology applied to a Product if asked.

14.2 Unlawful or infringing content. To report content you believe is unlawful, defamatory or infringing, email hello@heyconscious.com with your name and contact details, where the content appears, why you think it is unlawful or infringing, and a statement that your report is accurate. We will review reports and act as the law requires.

14.3 Copyright. If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, email hello@heyconscious.com with details of the work and where it appears. We will review it and act as the law requires. We may close the Accounts of repeat infringers.

14.4 Complaints. If you are unhappy with the Services, tell us at hello@heyconscious.com. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and aim to resolve within 30 days.

15. Privacy, suspension, termination and changes

15.1 Privacy. Our Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use it and your rights, and applies alongside the Terms.

15.2 Ending your use. You can stop using the Services and delete your Account at any time. We may suspend or end your access, with notice where reasonably possible, if you materially breach the Terms, misuse the Services, or the law requires. If we end your Account for a reason not connected to your breach, we will refund Premium fees you paid direct to us for the period after termination. On termination your licence ends and you must stop using the app. Sections that by their nature should continue (for example intellectual property, disclaimers, liability and governing law) survive.

15.3 Changes to the Services. We may change, add or remove features and may discontinue the Services. Where we remove a paid feature, we will give reasonable notice and a proportionate refund for any unused period if you paid us directly.

15.4 Changes to the Terms. We may update the Terms, for example to reflect changes in law, the Services or our Methodology. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice of material changes by email or in the app before they take effect. If you do not agree, you can stop using the Services and cancel any subscription before then. Continuing to use the Services after the changes take effect means you accept them. We may make changes that are legally required, or that do not reduce your rights, immediately.

16. Terms for your region

The Services launch in the United Kingdom and are available through the UK App Store. This section adds to the rest of the Terms and prevails where it conflicts with them.

16.1 United Kingdom. If you are a consumer, nothing in the Terms affects your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 or other UK consumer law, including the right to digital content that is of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. We will comply with the subscription contract rules that apply to us under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 when they take effect.

16.2 Other countries. The Services are made available through the UK App Store. If you use them from elsewhere, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for following local laws. You keep any rights that local law gives you and that cannot be excluded by contract.

16.3 Product data outside the UK. Our Database is focused on Products sold in the UK. Products with the same barcode may have a different recipe or packaging elsewhere, and scores may not suit Products sold outside the UK.

16.4 Sanctions. You must not use the Services if you are subject to UK, EU or US sanctions or in a country subject to a comprehensive embargo.

17. Governing law, disputes and general terms

17.1 Governing law. The Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of them or the Services (including non-contractual claims), are governed by the laws of England and Wales, except that mandatory consumer laws of your country of residence continue to apply.

17.2 Courts. If you are a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts of the part of the UK where you live, or, if you live in the EU or EEA, in the courts of your country of residence. We can bring a claim against you in those courts. Otherwise the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

17.3 Resolving disputes. Please write to us first at hello@heyconscious.com and we will try to put things right. If we cannot resolve your complaint you may be able to use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. We are not currently a member of an ADR scheme.

17.4 General.

Entire agreement. The Terms, with the documents in section 1.3, are the whole agreement between us about the Services and replace earlier agreements about them.
Severability and waiver. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we do not give it up.
Transfer. You cannot transfer your rights without our written consent. We may transfer ours to another business in connection with a merger, sale or reorganisation, as long as your rights are not reduced.
Third parties. Except for Apple as described in section 3.3, no one other than you and us can enforce the Terms.
Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
Language. The Terms are in English. Any translation is for convenience only and the English version prevails, except where local law requires otherwise.
Notices. We may give you notice by email, in the app or on our website. You can contact us at hello@heyconscious.com.