Pantry
Pantry support
Last updated 15 September 2026.
Pantry starts from what you already have and what goes off first, and answers one question on one screen: what is for dinner tonight.
Adding things, and why there is almost no form
The only thing an item needs is a name. There is no quantity field, no unit picker, no category and no date picker, because every one of those is a decision somebody makes at seven in the evening by closing the app.
Quick-add reads one line. Type chicken thighs fridge 3 and you get chicken thighs, in the fridge, due in three days. Type rice and you get rice. The field stays focused and clears itself, so a whole shop goes in without the keyboard closing.
Two things are read off the end of the line: a location word such as fridge, freezer or cupboard, and a bare number, read as days from today. Anything else stays in the name, and nothing is ever rejected. A line that did not parse becomes an item called exactly that, which is untidy and far better than an error. Larger numbers stay in the name, so a weight stays a weight.
Why some items have no date
Because most of a real cupboard has no date on it. Undated items sort to the bottom and are still shown: an app displaying only the dated third would be describing a kitchen nobody owns.
Dates that came off a receipt
Photograph a receipt and a whole shop goes in at once, with till abbreviations turned back into food. The dates are typical shelf life for that kind of thing added to the purchase date, not a date read off the packet. That is a guess and the app says so, but an approximate date that sorts milk above tinned tomatoes beats no date at all. Change any of them.
The avoid list
Whatever you write under what you cannot eat is treated as an absolute constraint and kept out of every suggestion completely, including as a hidden ingredient: no sesame means no tahini, no dairy means no butter.
It is free text on purpose. A checklist covers the allergens its designer thought of and fails silently on the ninth, so write it however you like.
The separate box for what you would rather not eat holds dislikes and diets. Those are preferences rather than rules, and a suggestion will break one if the food is genuinely better for it.
Why the suggestion came back empty
Because it could not build something from what you have without touching your avoid list. It returns nothing rather than something borderline. An empty suggestion is a mildly annoying evening; the alternative is not.
Dismissed suggestions are remembered only so the same title is not offered again.
Pantry cannot see your kitchen
It suggests from what you told it you have. It does not know how anything was stored, and it is not a food-safety device. A date here is a sorting aid, not a verdict on whether something is good. Check the food, not the app.
The evening nudge
One nudge a day, at dinner time, and only when something is going off. It names the actual food, because a notification saying you have items expiring is one nobody acts on.
An honest limitation: the nudge carries the text it was scheduled with, and that text is rebuilt when you open the app. If the app goes unopened for a week, it can name food you have already eaten.
Used, or binned
Finishing an item asks one question, and either answer removes it. The difference feeds the waste figure for the last month.
What Pantry does not do
- No shopping list. The point is starting from what you already have, and a list is the first step back toward being every other meal planner.
- No store account, loyalty card or purchase history.
- Nothing learns from you beyond avoiding a repeated suggestion title.
An internet connection is required.
Subscriptions
Pantry is sold as a subscription through your Apple ID. The current price and billing period are shown on the purchase screen inside the app, which reads them from the App Store for your country rather than repeating a figure here.
Manage it at Settings › your name › Subscriptions. Cancelling stops the renewal and leaves the current period running to its end; we cannot cancel it for you. After a reinstall or a new device use Restore Purchases, and if it finds nothing, check you are signed in with the Apple ID that bought it. Apple is the merchant of record, so refunds are requested at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Your data
There is no password; you sign in with a code sent to your email address. The app stores your items, the suggestions made, and any receipt you photographed. Deleting your account removes all of it, immediately and unrecoverably.
A food list can imply a religion, a health condition or a household size. It is not analysed for any of that, not used to profile you, and never sold or shared. The full policy is at carrierpress.com/pantry/privacy, and it names the services involved: the database and sign-in codes, the model that reads receipts and proposes a meal, and the subscription processor.
Contact
One person reads that, so a reply may take a few days.
Pantry is published by Jeffrey L Carrier.