FreshTrack - Your Best Before Buddy

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  Full inventory, categorized automatically by grocery name

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  Shows items expiring in the next 3 days to prioritise

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  Suggestion of recipes

Inspiration

A devilish smell from the fridge, only to find a science experiment on mould in the back, hidden from view. Expired groceries don't just represent forgetfulness; they also waste money. As an international student cooking her own meals, I had to build FreshTrack to better manage my groceries.

What it does

FreshTrack is a Telegram bot that:

• scans receipts to build a grocery inventory.
• tracks quantities, storage conditions, and most importantly, assigns expiry dates.
• suggests recipes for ingredients nearing expiry.
• updates groceries that are consumed.

How I built it

Built with Python, Telegram Bot API, SQLite, and the APIyi AI API, FreshTrack combines inventory management with AI-assisted receipt processing and recipe suggestions.

Challenges I ran into

The main challenge was the risk of suggesting expiry dates that are ahead of the actual dates, since FreshTrack estimates the expiry dates on its own based on the grocery name. Hence, the estimates were kept conservative, and an option for the user to manually add printed expiry dates was also added.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

The convenience of the bot - all it really needs is a photo of the grocery receipt when purchased. It has now solved a common problem of mine (and my housemates), and that's all that mattered.

What I learned

The trade-off between convenience and too many options - the bot had to be iterated multiple times to decide on a smooth interface that's not demanding on the user.

What's next for FreshTrack - Your Best Before Buddy

• hosting on a server to run full-time, enabling personalised reminders for when a specific grocery is about to expire
• potential Telegram mini-app with an interface beyond the chatbot
• guidance on food-wastage habits of the user

Built With

• apiyi
• chatgpt
• python
• sqlite
• telegram