MENTIFABERThe workshop · drawn at night
Sheet
24 / 41
Grid
MF-04·04
Drawn
Anders
Date
28.10.2026
Fig. 1 · Worm Eater, on the bench: power it on to run it hereMF-04·04

01Why it exists

The honest part is the unknowns

Every scanner app gives a number. The number only means something if you know how much of the label it actually understood. A 78 across four of eleven ingredients is a different claim from a 78 across all eleven. Worm Eater shows both: the score, and the coverage it stands on. Below half, it refuses to score at all.

02Parts list

  1. ClassifiedMatched against the ingredient table with a rating and a stated reason. Tap any ingredient to see why it landed where it did.
  2. UnclassifiedOn the label, missing from the table, and shown as such. That's how a mystery additive would otherwise become a good score.
  3. Weighted by positionLabels list ingredients by weight, so the first three count most, and added sugar at the top of the list costs extra.
  4. AI classifyAn escape hatch for the unknowns: a free model gives a provisional read, clearly marked provisional, and it never changes the score.
  5. Better in the same categoryNever the product itself, and nothing with a short or poorly understood label: the two old bugs, fixed.
  6. Scan with the cameraOn browsers that can read barcodes (Chrome on Android), or type the number under the barcode.

03Construction

The bugs it learned from

Self-substitution: the substitute finder could recommend the scanned product as its own alternative. Truncated data: a short ingredient list looks like a clean product, so incomplete entries ranked above complete ones. Both were the scorer treating absence as good news, the instinct the app exists to argue against (lacunism).

Built on

Open Food Facts and Open Beauty Facts, community-made and uneven in exactly the ways the app surfaces. An ingredient table of a few hundred names and E-numbers, each with its reason. The native app (v7) adds pet food, USDA and UPC sources.

Open Food FactsBarcodeDetectorAutoFaber free models

04Tolerances

Ratings are a reasoned summary, not medical advice, and the open databases are only as complete as their volunteers. When it doesn't know, it says so.

what it is not, said plainly

05Inscription

Formerly “Yuka But Honest”. Still honest.

06The same room