Question 1

What is Bud?

Accepted Answer

Bud is a personalized food intelligence companion for people who manage dietary restrictions, food allergies, or ingredient sensitivities. It reads real grocery labels using on-device OCR - the camera on your phone - and gives you a clear, evidence-backed verdict on whether a product is compatible with your health profile.

Unlike calorie trackers or general nutrition apps, Bud is built around a Safety-First logic engine. Its primary job is to tell you, with confidence, whether the declared ingredients match your profile - not just what’s in it.

Question 2

How is Bud different from other food apps?

Accepted Answer

Most food apps pull from product databases that are months out of date, are built around US retail data, and give you ingredient lists without telling you what they mean for someone with your specific restrictions.

Bud reads the label in your hand - the actual label, from the actual shelf - using on-device OCR. It parses precautionary allergen labeling, detects “may contain” warnings, traces ingredients to source components, and cross-references your personal health profile to give you a verdict that’s specific to you. It’s not a calorie tracker. It’s not a nutrition guide. It’s a safety system.

Question 3

Who is Bud for?

Accepted Answer

Bud is for anyone who has to think carefully before eating something new. That includes people managing one or more food allergies (peanut, tree nut, dairy, gluten, shellfish, soy, sesame, and others), people with autoimmune conditions where food choices have clinical consequences, people following strict dietary protocols - vegan, halal, kosher, low-FODMAP, AIP - people who care deeply about ingredient sourcing and purity, parents shopping for children with complex dietary needs, and anyone who has ever stood in a grocery aisle trying to decode a label and wished they had a knowledgeable friend standing next to them.

Question 4

What does "Compatible" mean when Bud gives a verdict?

Accepted Answer

Compatible means that Bud found no flagged ingredients in the product’s label based on your health profile, and that the product passed a cross-contamination risk assessment. Both conditions must be true.

A product that contains no declared allergens but is manufactured in a facility that also processes your allergen will not be marked Compatible - it will be flagged with a Caution verdict and the reason will be shown clearly.

Compatible is not a blanket assurance. It means the available evidence, as read from the label in front of you, shows no conflict with your profile. Always verify the physical package.

Question 5

Does Bud catch "may contain" warnings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Bud scans for all forms of Precautionary Allergen Labeling (PAL) - including “may contain,” “produced in a shared facility,” “made on equipment that also processes,” and other common phrasings used by Canadian and US manufacturers.

Your sensitivity to PAL warnings is customizable. If you have a severe allergy and want Bud to flag any trace-level risk, you can set that. If you’ve been told by your allergist that you can tolerate shared-facility risk for a specific allergen, you can adjust accordingly. You are in control of how conservative the system is.

Question 6

What if Bud can’t read a label?

Accepted Answer

We tell you clearly, and we never guess.

If a label is blurry, poorly lit, or printed in a way that makes OCR unreliable, Bud will tell you it wasn’t able to get a confident read. It will suggest retaking the photo or flagging the product for manual entry. It will not attempt a verdict on partial data.

If you’re in a situation where you genuinely cannot get a read and need to make a decision, Bud will tell you that too - so you’re never under the impression that a silent scan is a confirmed match.

Question 7

What is a Truth Report?

Accepted Answer

A Truth Report is a deep-dive product analysis that goes beyond the standard scan verdict. While a regular scan tells you whether a product is compatible with your profile, a Truth Report breaks down every ingredient to its source components, traces manufacturing processes where known, and surfaces the full context behind what you’re eating.

Truth Reports are generated on request. Bud Plus users receive standard Truth Reports. Full Access users get priority processing and access to the complete analysis including clinical literature references.

Question 8

How are ingredient tradeoffs generated in a Truth Report?

Accepted Answer

Tradeoffs in Truth Reports are generated by weighing a product’s functional benefits - its nutritional profile, the purpose of each ingredient, its role in the formulation - against potential health impacts drawn from peer-reviewed clinical literature and known sensitivity data.

This is not a judgment about whether a food is “healthy” in a general sense. It’s an assessment of that ingredient, in that quantity, in the context of your specific health profile. Two people could receive different tradeoff assessments for the same product based on their individual configurations.

Truth Reports are informational. They are not medical diagnoses. If a tradeoff raises a concern, discuss it with a healthcare professional.

Question 9

What happens when I import a receipt?

Accepted Answer

When you upload a grocery receipt - a photo or digital file - Bud reads the itemized purchase list and attempts to match each item to a verified product in its database. Successfully matched items are added to your Pantry, creating a digital record of what’s in your home.

From there, Bud runs a Safety Audit across your Pantry: a full review of every product against your current health profile. If your profile has changed - say, you’ve recently added a new allergy - the audit will flag products you bought before the update that may now be a concern.

This feature requires Bud Plus or Full Access. Receipt data is stored in your account and can be deleted at any time.

Question 10

Is Bud diagnosing conditions?

Accepted Answer

No. This is important.

Bud is an information synthesis tool. It reads labels, organizes data, surfaces patterns, and gives you better information to make your own decisions. It does not diagnose food allergies, intolerances, autoimmune conditions, or any other medical condition.

Bud Predicts - available in Full Access - identifies correlations between what you eat and symptom patterns you log. It can surface meaningful patterns worth discussing with a healthcare provider. It is not a diagnostic system, and it does not replace clinical evaluation.

If you have concerns about a food allergy or reaction, consult a qualified medical professional.

Question 11

Can I use Bud for free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Core scanning is always free. You can scan products, receive allergy verdicts, and access PAL warning detection without paying anything, ever. The free tier includes 10 scans per day - enough for a full grocery run for most users.

We will not move core safety features behind a paywall. That is a commitment.

Question 12

What does Full Access include?

Accepted Answer

Full Access includes everything in Bud Plus - unlimited scans, ingredient deep-dive reports, full receipt scanning, pantry memory, and Truth Reports - plus Bud Predicts (the bio-feedback loop that correlates your scan history with logged symptom check-ins to surface personalized dietary patterns), grocery pickup optimization, priority Truth Report requests (faster turnaround, full clinical citation layer), and family sharing for up to 5 individual profiles, each with independent health configurations.

Full Access is designed for people who want Bud to function as a genuine long-term companion, not just a one-off label checker.

Question 13

What data does Bud store?

Accepted Answer

Bud stores only what’s needed to keep your profile accurate and your history accessible across devices. That includes your health profile (allergies, sensitivities, dietary preferences), your scan history (if you have a Bud Plus or Full Access account), saved products and pantry contents (if you use those features), and symptom check-in logs (if you use Bud Predicts).

All of this is under your control. You can export, delete, or disable any category from your account settings. Free users who don’t create an account have no scan data stored beyond the current session.

Question 14

Does Bud sell my data?

Accepted Answer

Never.

BUD’s revenue comes from user subscriptions - not from advertising, not from data licensing, not from selling aggregated health profiles to third parties. Your health data is not a product. The fact that you’re managing a food allergy is not something we would ever monetize.

This is not a legal hedge. It’s a business model choice and a values commitment. If that ever changed, we would tell you explicitly and give you the option to leave before it took effect.

Question 15

How do I join the beta?

Accepted Answer

Click the “Join Beta” button on the waitlist page and fill in a few basic details. Beta access is rolling out in waves. We prioritize by region and use case to make sure each wave gets meaningful support. Most waitlist applicants hear back within 1-3 weeks of their wave opening.

You’ll get an email with a direct download link and onboarding instructions. No app store waiting required during early beta.

Question 16

Can I request a missing product?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If Bud can’t match a product you’ve scanned, you’ll see a “Flag Missing” option in the scan result screen. From there, you can upload photos of the front and back of the label. Our team verifies and adds the product to the database within 48 hours in most cases.

Beta users who actively flag missing products are a core part of how Bud expands its coverage - particularly for regional brands, store-brand items, and reformulated products that databases are slow to catch.

Questions, answered clearly.

Product Basics

Safety & Verdicts

Truth Reports

Pantry & Insights

Pricing & Plans

Privacy & Trust

Beta & Availability

Still have questions?