The new digital face of the consumerist mediator: the case of the ‘Yuka’ mobile app

Drawing on Mallard’s contribution [2007. Performance testing: dissection of a consumerist experiment. The sociological review, 55 (2), 152–172] on the work undertaken by consumerist journals to evaluate products independently from the mediation of market players, our goal is to characterize the new digital form of the consumerist mediator by using a specific case: Yuka, a mobile application (app) enabling consumers to obtain alternative health labeling on foodstuffs. Relying on interviews, observations of the app and analysis of underlying product databases and reports on food labeling issues, we examine the new forms of consumer-to-market interactions brought about by the app, the conceptions of health inscribed in its product qualification algorithm and the operation of the database on which it is based. Our position is threefold: firstly, we argue that the relationship between the consumer and the market established by Yuka is less distant than the one established by traditional consumerist mediators. Secondly, in the case of Yuka, we argue that the market relationship is based on a compromise between scientific logic, technological uncertainty and consumer concerns. Thirdly, we claim that this case demonstrates new ways for consumerist prescribers to politically intervene on markets, but that the potential of the intervention is tied to new issues related to the openness of product data.