In a modest apartment in Jerusalem, surrounded by the vibrant chaos of family life, Yaelle Ifrah is waging a quiet revolution. A former TV producer, culinary entrepreneur, and parliamentary adviser, Ifrah is now taking on one of Israel’s most entrenched and overlooked issues: food transparency. Her tool? A sleek, AI-powered mobile app called Kaspenu.
Launched in April 2025, Kaspenu is the first of its kind in Israel – an app that empowers consumers with deep, personalized insights into the food they buy. With a simple barcode scan, users can see nutritional scores, ingredient lists, additives, allergen warnings, price comparisons, and even whether a product is locally made. For Ifrah, this isn’t just a technical project; it’s a social mission born out of personal frustration and professional insight.
Ifrah’s journey began in Paris, where she worked in TV production and later opened a gourmet restaurant and wine bar. “I went to culinary school, worked with Sony Music, then made a total switch to food,” she says. When she made aliyah 10 years ago, she brought not only her family – three daughters now aged 17 to 22 – but also her refined palate and a sharp eye for quality. The transition to Israeli consumer culture was jarring.
“I was shocked by how bad the food system is here,” she says. “There’s a lack of choice, poor quality, misleading labels, and prices that are just outrageous. It’s a market dominated by monopolies, and most people don’t even know what they’re eating.”
Ifrah’s disillusionment deepened during her six-year tenure as a parliamentary adviser at the Knesset, where she worked on welfare, health, and education policy. “I saw the dysfunction from the inside. Every day, nonprofits and ministries came to committees to complain about everything that wasn’t working. It was like peering into the broken back door of the Start-Up Nation.”
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Ifrah began to formulate a solution. “I thought about starting a consumer association, but nobody was going to take to the streets during a pandemic or a war. Then it hit me – what do Israelis use more than anything else? Apps.”
Inspired by the success of Yuka, a French app with over 68 million users worldwide, she envisioned an Israeli counterpart that would not only display nutritional data but also integrate real-time price comparisons and cultural nuances like kosher labeling and local production. Thus, Kaspenu was born.
Kaspenu is more than a database. It’s a dynamic platform built with the help of CTO Jeremy Atia and a team of volunteers and tech professionals from companies like Google, IBM, and eToro. It currently includes around 40,000 products, of which 15,000 to 18,000 are live in the app. Products are evaluated using international scoring systems like NutriScore and Nova, along with Israeli Health Ministry, labeling and user-submitted feedback.
The app’s goal? “To make Israeli consumers smarter and more empowered,” Ifrah says. “I want people to know what’s in their food – not just how much it costs, but how healthy or harmful it is.” As an immigrant to Israel, an olah hadasha, moving her life to a new country and culture did not mean she needed to change the way that she fed herself and her family.She also saw moving to Israel as an opportunity to contribute to the future of life in the country for all.
“I didn’t make aliyah in order to sit here and do nothing,” Ifrah tells The Jerusalem Post. “I think that we have, as olim, an extraordinary possibility of having an impact on Israeli society that I wouldn’t have as a French citizen in France.”
Ifrah believes that part of the issue lies in Israel’s historical and cultural relationship with food. “In France, cheese is a living, cultured product. Here, it’s a square yellow block,” she says with a mixture of humor and exasperation. “Israelis value quantity over quality. There’s no food culture here. It’s just about getting food on the table.”
This lack of discernment, Ifrah argues, has allowed big food companies to exploit consumers. “They use excessive additives and unhealthy fats, especially in parve [nondairy] products. And thanks to kosher regulations, there’s often even less transparency.”
What’s more, legislation designed to encourage market competition – such as Israel’s price transparency law – has largely failed. “It was meant to help consumers, but it’s mostly used by big companies to monitor each other,” she says. “We had apps that showed prices, but nobody used them, because they weren’t practical for bulk shopping.”
Building a smarter consumer
Kaspenu tackles these challenges head-on. When users scan a product, they see a comprehensive breakdown: a picture, manufacturer, country of origin, a health score out of 100, and recommendations for healthier or cheaper alternatives. The app also displays average and lowest prices across Israel, without naming the store – “because that’s not the point,” Ifrah explains. “We want people to be informed, not just price-obsessed.”
One of Ifrah’s favorite features is the petition system. Users who feel a product is overpriced can flag it. When enough signatures are collected, Kaspenu sends the petition to retailers and publishes it online. “It’s about restoring power to the consumer,” she says.
AI also plays a vital role. “It helps us sort products by category, especially in Hebrew, where language rules are complex,” Ifrah says. “It ensures recommendations make sense – like suggesting a better yogurt, not a bag of flour.”Despite its promise, launching Kaspenu hasn’t been easy. “It’s a nonprofit. I don’t take a salary. Neither does my co-founder. We rely on donations, and so far, only one foundation – French – has supported us.”
Tech investors were skeptical. “They couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to monetize it. I told them, because I want it to be totally independent. No one can say we’re pushing products for Strauss or Tnuva.”
Potential donors were often men unfamiliar with grocery shopping. “Some said, ‘Interesting, I’ll ask my wife about it.’ They saw it as a women’s issue. But this is about families. It’s about health. It’s about the economy.”
Still, early feedback has been positive. “People write to us saying they scanned everything in their cupboard and found out how unhealthy some of their go-to products are. They’re not buying them anymore.”
In the next five years, Ifrah hopes to reach 200,000 users and partner with public institutions like the ministry and the health funds. She also plans to expand into environmental scoring, cosmetics, hygiene, and cleaning products.“This is only the beginning,” she says. “We want to be the go-to app for every smart consumer in Israel.”
Ifrah is also nurturing the next generation of changemakers. She runs Maag’olot, a program that mentors French immigrant women on entrepreneurial projects. “I believe olim bring something precious – culture, knowledge, drive. We’re a treasure for this country.”
Ultimately, Kaspenu is about more than food. It’s about dignity, awareness, and change. “This is the world I’m leaving to my daughters. I want it to be better,” says Ifrah.
Her advice to other would-be entrepreneurs? “Aim high. Don’t let people discourage you. Surround yourself with good people and never stop pushing.”
For now, Ifrah remains a quiet but relentless force – standing behind Israel’s weary shoppers like a digital friend in the supermarket aisle, whispering: “Check this one. You can do better.”