What's in my Fridge

What’s in my Fridge turns recipe ideas into real meals: import links from TikTok/YouTube/Instagram, match them with what you already have, and get a smart shopping list for missing ingredients fast.

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About the project

Inspiration

What’s in my Fridge was inspired by a simple problem: people save tons of recipes, but very few actually get cooked.
Between cookbooks, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, inspiration is everywhere, but execution is hard. We wanted to build a tool that closes the gap between “I want to cook this” and “I’m actually cooking it tonight.”

What we built

We built a mobile app that helps users:

  • Track what they already have in their fridge/pantry
  • Import recipes from URL (social/video/blog links)
  • Generate practical shopping lists for missing ingredients
  • Save favorites and cook step by step
  • Unlock advanced usage with a Pro subscription (RevenueCat + Google Play)

In short, it’s a from-scroll-to-stove workflow.

How we built it

We used:

  • React Native + Expo for the app
  • Firebase (Auth, Firestore, Functions, Storage) for backend/data workflows
  • RevenueCat SDK for subscription management and entitlement gating
  • Google Play Console for closed testing and subscription products
  • OCR + parsing flows for receipt and ingredient extraction

We designed a free/pro model:

  • Free: limited monthly OCR + recipe generation
  • Pro: unlimited scans/recipes + recipe import by URL + shopping list enhancements

Challenges we faced

Main challenges were:

  • Play Console compliance and release flow (testing tracks, policy declarations, metadata requirements)
  • Android signing/build pipeline (keystore setup, versionCode increments, Gradle issues)
  • RevenueCat + Play integration (service account permissions, product import, entitlement/offering mapping)
  • Localization consistency (migrating visible UI strings to English across screens)
  • Edge-case handling in OCR/URL parsing where recipe data quality varies a lot by source

What we learned

We learned that shipping mobile software is as much about product + compliance + infrastructure as it is about coding.
Technically, we improved in:

  • Subscription architecture (entitlements/offers/paywalls)
  • Robust release workflows on Android
  • Designing clear free/pro limits users understand

Product-wise, we learned that reducing friction matters most.
If we define cooking completion rate as:

[ \text{Completion Rate} = \frac{\text{recipes cooked}}{\text{recipes saved}} ]

our entire app is focused on increasing that ratio.

What’s next

Next steps:

  • Better recommendation quality from pantry + dietary preferences
  • Smarter grocery optimization (grouped store-ready lists)
  • Improved import quality from short-form video content
  • More polished onboarding and analytics around cooking outcomes

What’s in my Fridge is built to help people cook more, waste less, and turn inspiration into meals.

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