How ChooseWell works
Identifying a product
Point your camera at a barcode, photograph the front of a package, search by name, enter a produce sticker code (PLU), or type a vehicle identification number (VIN). ChooseWell matches whatever you give it to a specific product or vehicle record, then to the company that makes it, using the brand owner on record, then the brand name, and only as a last resort the barcode's company prefix. The app tells you when it had to use that last method.
Four tabs, one profile
- Political involvement: public campaign-finance and lobbying disclosures connected to the company behind the product.
- Safety: ingredient watch-lists and recall notices, including vehicle recalls for VIN lookups.
- Nutrition: the product's own nutrition facts, compared against thresholds you set yourself.
- Reviews: ratings and comments from other ChooseWell users.
Switch any tab off in Profile and it leaves the product pages, the overall rating and the search results.
Check a whole cart at once
Choose a screenshot of an Instacart, DoorDash, Amazon or Walmart cart and ChooseWell reads the item names on your phone, looks each one up, and shows the maker and scores for every line. The picture never leaves the phone.
No accounts, ever
ChooseWell has no logins. Reviews and photos you submit are tied to a random identifier generated on your device, not to you. Your subscription rides on your Apple ID or Google account through the store.
An optional Candidates tab
Turn it on in Profile to look up any candidate's own funding, federal, state or local: where it comes from, which companies and PACs gave, and their committee assignments, straight from FEC filings, state campaign-finance records and congressional records. Off by default.
For the full detail on where every number comes from, see Data sources and Methodology.