Pantry Pilot

Scan/photograph receipts or shelf items → auto-tracks what's in your kitchen and when it expires → suggests recipes using soon-to-expire items first → generates a shopping list for what's missing.

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Pantry Pilot

Inspiration

Food waste is a common problem for students and busy households. Many groceries are forgotten at the back of the refrigerator or pantry until they expire, resulting in unnecessary waste and extra spending. We wanted to build a simple solution that helps users keep track of what they already have at home instead of relying on memory.

This idea led to Pantry Pilot a mobile application that makes pantry management simple by allowing users to add, organize, and monitor their food inventory in one place.

What it does

Pantry Pilot helps users manage their kitchen inventory by providing:

  • Add pantry items manually
  • Scan product barcodes to automatically fetch product details
  • Track expiry dates
  • Organize items by category
  • Search pantry items quickly
  • View items that are close to expiring
  • Remove consumed or expired products
  • Clean and simple mobile interface built with React Native

The goal is to reduce food waste while making pantry management effortless.

How we built it

The application was built using the following technologies:

  • React Native
  • Expo
  • TypeScript
  • React Navigation
  • Expo Camera for barcode scanning
  • Open Food Facts API for product information lookup
  • Context API for application state management

The app maintains a centralized pantry inventory using React Context and stores product information after manual entry or barcode lookup.

Challenges we faced

Building Pantry Pilot came with several challenges:

  • Integrating barcode scanning using Expo Camera
  • Managing camera permissions across different devices
  • Handling products that are unavailable in the Open Food Facts database
  • Designing a clean and beginner-friendly user interface
  • Managing application state efficiently using React Context
  • Debugging TypeScript configuration and Expo compatibility issues

Each challenge helped us better understand mobile application development and the Expo ecosystem.

What we learned

During development, we gained practical experience with:

  • React Native application development
  • Expo ecosystem and mobile deployment
  • TypeScript for safer code
  • Camera integration
  • REST API integration
  • React Context API for state management
  • Building responsive mobile interfaces
  • Debugging real-world mobile applications

Future Improvements

While the current version focuses on reliable pantry management, there are many exciting possibilities for future development.

Some planned features include:

  • AI-powered recipe recommendations based on available ingredients
  • Meal planning using pantry inventory
  • Smart shopping list generation
  • Food consumption analytics
  • Intelligent expiry reminders
  • Shared family pantry management
  • Cloud synchronization across devices
  • Voice-based item entry

These features can make Pantry Pilot a smarter kitchen assistant while keeping the current version lightweight and easy to use.

Conclusion

Pantry Pilot is designed to make pantry management simple, organized, and accessible. By helping users keep track of their groceries and expiry dates, the app encourages better food management habits and contributes to reducing household food waste.

Although this version does not yet include AI features, it provides a solid foundation for future intelligent capabilities that can further improve the user experience.

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