Olive - Holistic Food Scanner

What it does

Olive is a food scanner app designed to help users identify and avoid hidden toxins and undesirable ingredients in their groceries. By scanning a product's barcode, the app provides a simple 0-100 health score. It breaks down the product's processing level, seed oil content, and detected toxins, offering safer, cleaner alternatives for items that score poorly. The app also features a search function for discovering healthy products by category and a map to find restaurants that use healthier cooking fats.

Where it shines

Olive's strength lies in its clear, educational approach to a complex topic. The onboarding process, while long, effectively frames the problem with a compelling graph linking processed food to illness (00:27). This creates a strong motivation for the user to continue. The product detail screen (03:41) is another highlight. It presents a wealth of information in an easily digestible format, using color-coded sections for seed oils, processing, and toxins. The 'Safer Alternatives' feature (05:00) is particularly useful, providing immediate, actionable solutions for users looking to make a change.

UX highlights

Problem-first onboarding: The app opens by visualizing a health crisis (00:27), giving users a powerful 'why' before explaining the 'what'.
Comprehensive personalization quiz: The onboarding quiz (00:17 - 00:57) is extensive, covering everything from dietary restrictions to specific health goals, making the final recommendations feel earned.
Actionable product analysis: When a product is scanned or searched, the breakdown is simple and clear, with collapsible sections for more detail. Highlighting problematic ingredients directly in the ingredient list is a nice touch.
Gamified account creation: After subscribing, users are prompted to choose a fun avatar (01:54), which turns a tedious step into an engaging moment.
Community-driven database: When a product isn't found (02:52), the app smoothly prompts the user to add it by taking photos, empowering them to help grow the ecosystem.
Clear scoring explanation: The app includes a dedicated screen (03:47) explaining its scoring methodology, which builds transparency and trust in its recommendations.

Monetization & growth

Olive uses a hard paywall with a free trial, which appears after a lengthy and investment-heavy onboarding quiz (01:34). This strategy filters for highly motivated users. The paywall itself is strengthened by social proof, displaying user testimonials to build trust at the point of purchase. The app offers two subscription tiers, monthly and yearly, with the yearly option framed as a significant saving per month. After subscribing, the user is required to create an account, ensuring that all registered users are paying customers.

Who it’s for

This app is clearly targeted at health-conscious consumers, particularly parents and individuals concerned about the long-term effects of processed foods, seed oils, and environmental toxins. The detailed analysis and focus on 'clean' ingredients appeal to users who are already knowledgeable or highly motivated to learn. The simple scoring system also makes it accessible to those who are just beginning their journey toward healthier eating and feel overwhelmed by reading complex ingredient labels.

Notes & opportunities

The onboarding is very long, which could lead to high drop-off rates for less motivated users. Testing a shorter, more streamlined flow could be beneficial. The map feature (05:17) appears to be in its early stages; in the video, it fails to find any restaurants, which could be a frustrating experience. Populating this feature with more data or providing better feedback when no results are found would improve its utility. Finally, the app could benefit from showing 'safer alternatives' even for products that score well, to promote discovery of other great options.