ShelfSmart: Reliable Grocery Expiry Reminders for Bulk Buyers

Nobody buys a month's worth of groceries (unless they live like 100 miles away from a grocery store). There is no way to pull an item's expiration date from a receipt/bill. Expiration dates will also vary depending on how the food is stored, when it was originally picked in the case of fresh fruit & veggies, if it's fresh vs frozen. Even the dates added by manufacturers to packages are somewhat arbitrary. There are so many variables.

this is a very good idea. Good enough that the [inventory management](http://grocy.info) part has been done already, and the complications of [automating expiry dates](https://www.reddit.com/r/grocy/comments/pykrb7/automatic_expiry_date/) have been pondered by many before you. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that “use by” or “best before” dates are generally very loose labels that really don’t mean much. Some brands might do extensive research to determine that their processed food-like product doesn’t “perform to the same level of satisfaction” after a certain date, but the food would otherwise be perfectly/equally safe in storage for another couple of years before consumption. Other foods will spoil if not stored in exactly the manner expected by the manufacturer. For the most part, “how long has this food item existed in this state in this environment, in this packaging, since the date it was packed and stamped with the pre calculated (again, often arbitrary) expiration” is no more convincing than “when did I open this yoghurt? It looks fine… it smells… fine… yeah that doesn’t seem sour. It’s likely fine for one more serving at least”. These labels are loose suggestions at best, and were actually invented by the supermarket industry to create food waste, increasing sales. At the end of the day, the better option in software is to enable logging of the “date of purchase” to an item. This isn’t doing anything technically impressive at all, but simpler is often better.

this is a very good idea. Good enough that the [inventory management](http://grocy.info) part has been done already, and the complications of [automating expiry dates](https://www.reddit.com/r/grocy/comments/pykrb7/automatic_expiry_date/) have been pondered by many before you. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that “use by” or “best before” dates are generally very loose labels that really don’t mean much. Some brands might do extensive research to determine that their processed food-like product doesn’t “perform to the same level of satisfaction” after a certain date, but the food would otherwise be perfectly/equally safe in storage for another couple of years before consumption. Other foods will spoil if not stored in exactly the manner expected by the manufacturer. For the most part, “how long has this food item existed in this state in this environment, in this packaging, since the date it was packed and stamped with the pre calculated (again, often arbitrary) expiration” is no more convincing than “when did I open this yoghurt? It looks fine… it smells… fine… yeah that doesn’t seem sour. It’s likely fine for one more serving at least”. These labels are loose suggestions at best, and were actually invented by the supermarket industry to create food waste, increasing sales. At the end of the day, the better option in software is to enable logging of the “date of purchase” to an item. This isn’t doing anything technically impressive at all, but simpler is often better.