Shelf Life

Shelf Life is a web app that helps people use the food they already buy before it goes to waste. Inspired by this year’s theme, “Let’s Get Cookin’,” we set out to solve a familiar problem: groceries forgotten in the back of the fridge until they spoil. With Shelf Life, users take a photo of their grocery receipt, and the app reads it and builds their pantry automatically, logging each item with an estimated expiration date. As items near expiration, Shelf Life sends email alerts and generates recipes built around the ingredients expiring soonest, so the food most at risk gets used first. Once a user chooses a recipe, a voice assistant reads each step aloud, allowing them to keep their hands on the cooking instead of their phone. Users can add, edit, or remove items at any time to keep their pantry accurate. Our frontend connects to an AWS backend through API Gateway, with endpoints for receipt processing, inventory management, recipe generation, text-to-speech, and notifications. We also built a demo mode that simulates days passing, so judges can watch items approach expiration and trigger alerts in real time. Shelf Life turns forgotten groceries into meals people will actually eat.