PantryPal

Pantry Assistant

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PantryPal

DEvelopment reasons

4 college students tired of food going bad that we didn't know we had. PantryPal revolutionizes how we store and understand food storage, making us more efficient, eliminate waste, and find new recipes.

About

Built from ground up in 24 hours for HackCU11.

Created by Brandon Reeves, Benjamin Getches, Harrison Getches, and Rayaan Lodhi.

Quick Start

Visit pantrypal.up.railway.app to access the live application without any installation:

  1. Create a new account or log in with the demo credentials
  2. Explore your virtual pantry
  3. Try scanning products or adding them manually
  4. Generate recipe suggestions based on your pantry items

For local development, follow the installation instructions below.

Overview

AI Pantry Assistant is a smart kitchen management system that helps you track your pantry inventory, monitor expiration dates, and generate recipe suggestions based on what you have on hand. The application uses barcode scanning, AI-powered recipe generation, and expiration date tracking to reduce food waste and simplify meal planning.

Features

🔍 Product Scanning & Management

  • Scan product barcodes (UPC) to automatically add items to your pantry
  • Lookup product information from online databases
  • Manually add products with custom details
  • Track quantity and expiration dates

📅 Expiration Date Tracking

  • Visual calendar interface showing when items will expire
  • Color-coded expiration warnings (expired, expiring soon, expiring this week)
  • Reduce food waste by staying aware of expiration dates

🍳 AI Recipe Generation

  • Get recipe suggestions based on your current pantry inventory
  • Prioritizes recipes using ingredients that will expire soon
  • "Cook" recipes to automatically update your pantry inventory

👤 User Authentication

  • Secure signup and login system
  • JWT-based authentication
  • Personal pantry management

Technology Stack

Frontend

  • React 19
  • Redux for state management
  • React Router for navigation
  • Material UI components
  • FullCalendar for expiration date visualization
  • Framer Motion for animations

Backend

  • Flask (Python)
  • PostgreSQL database
  • OpenAI API for recipe generation
  • Go-UPC API for product lookups
  • JWT for authentication
  • bcrypt for password hashing

Installation

Prerequisites

  • Node.js (v18+)
  • Python (v3.9+)
  • PostgreSQL

Backend Setup

  1. Navigate to the backend directory:

    cd backend

  2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

    python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

  3. Install dependencies:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

  4. Create a .env file with the following variables:

    OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
GOUPC_API_KEY=your_goupc_api_key
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_NAME=pantry_db
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=your_db_password

  5. Set up the database:

    psql -U postgres -f create.sql

  6. Start the backend server:

    python app.py

Frontend Setup

  1. Navigate to the frontend directory:

    cd frontend

  2. Install dependencies:

    npm install

  3. Start the development server:

    npm start

Usage

  1. Create an account or log in
  2. Add products to your pantry by scanning barcodes or manual entry
  3. View your pantry inventory and expiration dates on the calendar
  4. Generate recipe suggestions based on your pantry items
  5. "Cook" recipes to automatically update your inventory

API Endpoints

Authentication

  • POST /api/signup - Create a new user account
  • POST /api/login - Log in to an existing account

Product Management

  • GET /api/lookup-upc - Look up product information by UPC
  • POST /api/products - Add a new product to the database
  • GET /api/products/<product_upc> - Get product details by UPC

Pantry Management

  • POST /api/pantry - Add a product to user's pantry
  • GET /api/pantry - Get user's pantry inventory
  • PUT /api/pantry/<pantry_id> - Update a pantry item
  • DELETE /api/pantry/<pantry_id> - Remove an item from pantry

Recipe Generation

  • POST /api/get-recipes - Generate recipe suggestions
  • POST /api/cook-recipe - Update pantry after cooking a recipe

Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

  • OpenAI for recipe generation capabilities
  • Go-UPC for product database access
  • All contributors who have helped build this project

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