I'm the creator of Auraly, a web app that helps people understand ingredient labels for food and personal care products by scanning them with their phone.
The idea came from a personal place. A few years ago my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which pushed me to learn more about nutrition, environmental exposures, and how everyday choices can affect long-term health. One thing I found frustrating was how hard ingredient labels are for most people to actually understand. They’re often long, filled with unfamiliar chemical names, vary across countries, and become even less useful when they’re written in a language you don’t speak.
Most existing tools rely on static databases or focus on a single category. I wanted to build something that works on real-world labels in any language, adapts to what the user personally cares about such as allergens or ingredient sensitivities, and avoids fear-based or overly simplistic scoring.
Auraly:
- Scans ingredient labels using OCR and AI
- Works with labels in any language
- Supports multiple interface languages (English, Spanish, Chinese currently)
- Lets users customize what they want flagged
- Is optimized for mobile and built as a lightweight web app
This is still very early and I’m mainly looking for feedback. I’d love thoughts on the technical approach, the UX, the risk framework, or whether this is even a useful idea.
We currently run on a freemium model, with 7 days of free unlimited access but I'm happy to extend free access for members of the HN community once your trial is up. Just let me know in the comments or send me a message via the app.
Happy to answer any questions, and thanks for taking a look.