Frequently Asked Questions

The ZOE program is currently available to people living in the continental United States and Hawaii. However, it is not currently available to people living in New York due to regulations in this state.

The ZOE programme is also available in the UK. For more information, read our UK FAQs.

If you're not from the UK or US, we'd love you to register your interest and join our waitlist so we can gauge demand as we expand.

We do not diagnose, prevent, or treat any diseases (including metabolic or inflammatory conditions). If you have any underlying health conditions you should consult your treating physician before joining the program.

This program is not appropriate for those with an eating disorder or a history of eating disorders.

Chronic conditions and diabetes

We do factor some conditions into our advice including many common medications for diabetes (e.g. metformin) and heart disease (e.g. statins).

To access the blood sensor you'll also need to consent to take part in our study, which excludes chronic diseases like diabetes. Read more about our entry criteria here.

Gut issues

Unfortunately, if you have a gut disease (e.g. Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or celiac disease) then you are not eligible for the program.

If you have a sensitive gut (e.g. irritable bowel syndrome) then you may join the program. However, you should understand that our advice is for general wellness and is not specifically formulated for your condition. Some diet changes we recommend, such as increasing fiber and diversifying your plant intake, have been shown to trigger adverse responses in some people with a sensitive gut. While we give advice that is suitable for most people, following our advice could make your condition worse. We are actively researching how we might be able to adjust our advice specifically for people living with irritable bowel syndrome.

No, ZOE is not meant to diagnose or treat any medical conditions. It is a tool that is meant for general wellness purposes only.

Our program is the first of its kind to combine microbiome analysis, blood testing, food logging, and continuous blood sugar monitoring. This provides 360° metabolic analysis that can be conducted remotely within the comfort of your own home.

Here's what's included in the ZOE program:

Gut microbiome test

Understand your gut microbiome health. Our simple at-home poop test is patent pending with the most advanced analysis on the market. Using deep shotgun sequencing, we can identify specific 'good' and 'bad' gut bugs that are linked to 'good' and 'bad' metabolic health.

Blood sugar & fat metabolism tests

Understand your unique metabolism. Simple tests (finger-prick blood test, test cookies, and optional blood sugar sensor) measure your blood sugar and blood fat levels after eating food.

Your responses to food

6 weeks after testing, you'll get the test results of your microbiome and metabolic health and a ZOE analysis of what it means for your health.

Members app

Get access to the ZOE app where you'll learn your unique responses to any food, recipe, or meal. Use the app to track your diet, get a motivating day score, and learn how to improve.

Personalized program

Learn how to eat for your biology with a personalized week-by-week plan. We’ll guide and empower you to make better decisions daily. Over the months of your membership, these changes will be conditioned into long-term habits.

Gut health guidance

Discover how good your microbiome is and specific foods to help you boost the good microbes you are missing.

Gut health retests

When you purchase the 12-month plans you get either one or three microbiome retests in your first year, depending on the tier you choose. You also get one retest for each subsequent year you renew.

There are two separate costs associated with ZOE: (1) testing and (2) membership.

Testing, which includes:

• Gut microbiome test

• Blood fat test

• Standardized test meals - cookies!

• Real-time blood sugar sensor (CGM) - if opted into our scientific study

• Gut health report

• Personalized insights report

• Access to gut microbiome retests, depending on which membership tier you’ve chosen

Membership, which includes:

• The ZOE app, which helps you make sense of your test results by combining our science and technology with your test results.

• In-app access to our expert nutrition coaches

• Access to our entire database of recipes and foods, all scored based on your test results

• Seamless food logging

• Access to the ZOE Support Group and Clubs

• ZOE Meal Planner

• Unlimited in-app support

You can read more about our pricing on our check-out page.

Your cookies were specifically designed by scientists to enable you to test your biological responses. The purpose of the cookies is to challenge your metabolism with high doses of fat and sugar over 6 hours. 

To be able to package the necessary amounts of nutrients in the challenge in a standardized way, we used cookies. We created specific recipes to understand your biology and recommend the best foods for you. 

• The metabolic challenge: you'll receive 2 'breakfast' cookies. Nutritional information for these can be found under 'Breakfast Test Cookies' in the table below. 

• The average meal: you'll receive two 'lunch' cookies. Nutritional information for these can be found under 'Lunch Test Cookies' in the table below.

Ingredients

Breakfast Test Cookie 

• White chocolate chips (cocoa butter, cane sugar, tapioca starch, rice syrup solids, rice maltodextrin, organic vanilla and salt) 

• Flour blend (brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch, cornstarch, potato starch, stabilizer (xanthan gum)) 

• Palm oil 

• Brown sugar 

• Chickpea flour 

• Tapioca starch 

• Tapioca syrup 

• Less than 2% of: water, vanilla bean extractives, salt

Lunch Test Cookie

• Flour blend (brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch, cornstarch, potato starch, stabilizer (xanthan gum))

• Brown sugar

• Chickpea flour 

• Tapioca starch 

• Less than 2% of: 

  • water

  • tapioca syrup

  • vanilla bean extractives

  • salt 

  • Color: FD&C Blue #1 (Brilliant Blue FCF) 

  • Raising agent: Baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate))

Allergy information

Our test cookies do not contain any of the eight major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soy).

However, they have been made in a facility that also handles tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and eggs.

We do not use organic or non-GMO ingredients but we do source supplies from reliable companies.

Nutritional information per 100g

Please reach out if you would like more information about these test meals.

To get a free blood sugar sensor with your test kit you must consent to our clinical study. The cost of the program does not include any study-related costs (including the blood sugar sensor) as ZOE covers these. To be eligible for the study you must meet the following criteria:

• You are at least 18 years of age (or at least 19 years of age if you live in Alabama or Nebraska).

• You live in the continental United States, but not in New York due to state regulations.

• You have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 16.5 kg/m2.

• You are not pregnant.

• You have not had a heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke/transient ischemic attack, or major surgery in the last two months.

• You can safely eat our test meals.

• If you are being treated for chronic medical conditions (such as eating disorders, type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes), you have checked with your treating physician that this product is safe for you.

The poop test is easy to collect and comes with step-by-step instructions to help you. The sample goes into a solution that preserves it, so there is no need to store it in your fridge. Phew!

There's a variety of next-generation sequencing approaches for studying the human microbiome. We chose shotgun metagenomics as it is the most comprehensive approach at sampling the whole DNA content of a microbiome.

This technique can detect very low abundance members of the microbial community (i.e. those found in very small numbers) that may be missed using other methods and provides information about the metabolic processes and functions present within a microbial community.

You can learn more about how we analyse your gut microbiome here.

As of September 2023, we have reformulated our previous muffin test meal into a cookie form that is now suitable for vegans and vegetarians. 

They are also free of all major allergens and alcohol but have been made in a facility that handles tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and eggs.

The cookies are not certified gluten-free or kosher. 

If you received a test kit that contains muffins, please note that while our muffins do not contain gluten or dairy, they do contain egg. 

The muffins have been produced in a facility that also handles milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts and soy. 

Your test kit will ship in 7-9 days after purchase. You can track it online using the tracking number that will be shared with you via email.

Yes - there are some criteria that mean you can’t join the study and therefore will be unable to access the blood sugar sensor (also known as a continuous glucose monitor or CGM):

• Pregnancy

• If you’ve had a heart attack myocardial infarction) or stroke/transient ischemic attack

• If you’ve had major surgery in the last two months

• If you cannot safely eat our test cookies (See 'Are your test meals suitable for vegans or vegetarians?' above for ingredient list)

• If you’re being treated for chronic conditions including type 1 and type 2 diabetes

• If you’re unable to fast for four hours

• If you have a BMI of less than 16.5

To get a blood sugar sensor you must consent to our clinical study. There are no additional costs to you for having to do so. After purchasing a ZOE plan, you will be directed to a page where you are prompted to complete your order and consent to our study. To be eligible, you must meet the following criteria:

• You are at least 18 years of age (or at least 19 years of age if you live in Alabama or Nebraska)

• You live in the continental United States, but not in New York due to state regulations

• You have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 16.5 kg/m2

• You are not pregnant

• You have not had a heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke/transient ischemic attack, or major surgery in the last two months

• You can safely eat our test cookies (See 'Are your test meals suitable for vegans or vegetarians?' above for the ingredient list)

• If you are being treated for chronic medical conditions (such as eating disorders, type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes), you have checked with your treating physician that this product is safe for you

The blood sugar sensor (also known as a continuous glucose monitor or CGM) is a blood sugar monitoring device manufactured by Abbott.

To collect data, it connects to an app on your mobile phone, LibreLink, via a form of wireless technology called near field communication, NFC. As such, it can only work with newer devices that have this function.

App compatibility

To check your device meets requirements, please download and attempt to install it as follows:

• iPhone users should attempt to download the LibreLink app here

• Android users should attempt to download the LibreLink app here

Device compatibility

iPhone

• The sensor is only compatible with an iPhone 7 or later / iPhone SE (2nd gen)

• Your phone will need to run iOS 15 or later

• We can't support iPads

Android

• You’ll need Android 8 or later

• The oldest devices we support are: Galaxy Note 8, S7 Edge, S8, S8+, S9, S10; Google Pixel, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL; LG Nexus 5X

• You need to be able to install apps from the Google Play Store - some recent Huawei phones cannot

You can shower or bathe while wearing the blood sugar sensor. However, it shouldn’t be taken below a depth of 1 metre (3ft) in water or submerged in water for more than 30 minutes as this could break or deactivate it.

That’s why we recommend that you avoid swimming or using saunas or steam rooms until you’ve finished your test.

The sensor comes provided with a plastic applicator. Cleaning the skin with the provided alcohol wipe, you place this firmly on the skin. With a firm ‘stamping’ motion, it gets applied. Some people may feel a slight pinching sensation, but this goes away soon after and the sensor should be painless to wear.

We recommend placing it on the back of your arm to avoid knocking the sensor and potentially dislodging it. We’ll also provide you with a latex-free sticker to cover the sensor, to keep it extra safe!

Absolutely! We actually encourage it to see how exercise affects your sugar response. If you play contact sports, plan to wear your sensor when you’re not playing a game, or position it somewhere that is unlikely to get hit.

No. ZOE covers any specific study-related costs, so you do not pay extra for the sensor.

The sensor lasts for approximately two weeks. We’ll gather the crucial information - your response to the test cookies - over a few days. For the remainder of the time, you’re free to experiment with different foods to get visual real-time feedback on how your body responds to sugar. You can also explore how different interventions can minimise the detrimental impact of sugar on your body.

No. Sensors are only available as part of the test kit and as such are limited to one per person.

You will receive one LibreLink sensor. This sensor is worn and collects data for up to two weeks. We are able to get all we need for your results from this time window.

To get your results you will first need to complete your tests at home and return your samples in the package provided. From there it currently takes about 6 weeks for our labs to process your samples. You will then receive an email as soon as your insights reports are ready to view.

In some cases, results will take longer to process due to retesting. If you need to retest due to issues with any of your samples, we will contact you via email immediately. From the point of retesting, you can expect to receive your results within 4-6 weeks.

No, we don't have sample reports that we can share.

Here's what you can expect to receive:

• A dietary inflammation profile (blood sugar & blood fat control), scored from 0-100, 'Bad' to 'Excellent'

• An introduction to our food scores

• Personalised food insights for your meals logged during your testing week

• The abundance of 50 "good" and "bad" microbes from your gut health sample

We recently made a breakthrough discovery in gut microbiome science, identifying the top 50 ‘good’ bugs associated with good health markers, and the 50 ‘bad’ bugs associated with bad health markers. This is based on our analysis of 35,000 stool samples, enabling us to identify thousands of bacteria that are entirely new to science. Read more here.

Yes. The ZOE app is currently available on both iOS (iPhone or iPad with iOS version 15 or later) and Android devices (Samsung, LG, Motorola etc. with Android 8.0 or later).

You'll also need to download and use the Abbott FreeStyle LibreLink app if you've opted-in to our study and will be using the blood sugar sensor.

If your phone is compatible with the Abbott FreeStyle LibreLink app, your phone will act as the reader to scan the study sensor:

• iPhone iOS 15 or later and an iPhone 7 or newer. / iPhone SE (2nd gen). We can't support iPads

• Android 8.0 or later. The oldest Android devices supported are: Galaxy Note 8, S7 Edge, S8, S8+, S9, S10; Google Pixel, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL; LG Nexus 5X. You'll also need to check you can install apps from the Google Play Store (some recent Huawei phones cannot)

If your device is incompatible, we will send you a separate reader device to scan your study sensor.

We take data security and your privacy seriously and your information will be stored securely. Our full privacy policy can be found here.

All sales are final and may not be cancelled unless your order has not been prepared yet. Preparation typically occurs within 24-48 hours after order completion. If there are any issues with quality or there are damaged parts, please get in contact with our support team and they'll be happy to assist you. If you are participating in the research study, you have the right to discontinue the study at any time. The cost of the program does not include any study-related costs as ZOE covers these, so you remain responsible for the cost of your order.

You can manage your membership in the ZOE app. Tap on the 'Profile' icon in the top right-hand corner. Tap the 'Settings' icon in the top right-hand corner, and you'll be able to cancel or update your subscription from the 'Account settings' section.

We're sorry to hear about any disappointment, and we're eager to sort it out. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We want to ensure that we're aware of any issues so we can correct them, not just for you, but for others, too. We'll do our best not to make the same mistake again.

If you would like to raise a complaint, please email us anytime at complaints@joinzoe.com. Our complaints team will acknowledge your message within 48 hours and will review your case thoroughly within the following 5-7 working days.

Klarna is a payment service that allows you to pay for your purchase in interest-free instalments.

When you choose to pay with Klarna, your instalments will be automatically deducted from your bank account or credit card on a schedule determined at checkout. There are no additional fees or interest if payments are made on time.

If you miss an instalment, Klarna may charge a late fee. Klarna will also contact you with a revised payment schedule, so it's important to stay up to date with your payments.

Klarna conducts a soft credit check when you apply for an instalment plan, which does not affect your credit score. However, missing payments could potentially be reported to credit bureaus.

You can manage your payments and view your payment schedule by logging into your Klarna account. Klarna will also send payment reminders before each due date.

If you have questions or encounter issues with your Klarna payments, you can contact Klarna's customer support, which is available via their website or app for assistance.

Please forward any affiliate/partnership requests to social@joinzoe.com and our team will get back to you.