Help & FAQ

FridgEat helps you stop throwing food away. You add your groceries to the app (with a photo, a barcode or by hand), FridgEat estimates the dates, gives you a heads-up before things spoil and suggests recipes with what you already have.

The app is free. The optional FridgEat+ subscription adds more photo analyses and recipes made just for you (see FridgEat+).

FridgEat is an iPhone app that needs iOS 17 or later. There’s no Android or web version.

No. FridgEat works without an account or a password. Your data stays on your iPhone and, if it’s signed in to iCloud, in your own iCloud (see Data and privacy).

The first time you open FridgEat, you get three ways to begin:

• “Snap my groceries”: lay your groceries on a table, take a photo, and FridgEat puts them away with their dates;
• “Add by hand”: type your first items;
• “Explore with a sample fridge”: try the app with 10 sample items.

After that, everything happens in the tabs at the bottom of the screen: Home, My kitchen (fridge, freezer and pantry), the big camera button in the middle, Recipes and Groceries (your shopping list).

Tap FridgEat’s head in the top-right corner of the screen (Home, My kitchen, Recipes or Groceries) to open My profile. The settings are further down, under “Settings”: cooking profile, household, pantry, notifications, language, privacy, backup, feedback and FridgEat+.

In My kitchen, tap “+ Add”. To go faster, type or dictate several items at once in the quick add field, separated by commas: “2 yogurts, milk, 6 eggs.” FridgEat picks up the quantities and estimates a date for each item.

In My kitchen, swipe an item right when you’ve eaten it, left when you’ve tossed it. You can also tap the item to open it: “Eaten,” “Tossed,” “Opened today,” “Freeze it”… These actions feed your anti-waste recap. Made a mistake? Tap “Cancel” in the message that pops up at the bottom of the screen right after.

Touch and hold your iPhone’s Home Screen, tap + (or “Edit”), search for FridgEat and pick a size. The medium widget shows the 3 items to eat soon, with an “Eaten” button; the large one adds your shopping list to check off. There are Lock Screen widgets too. Widget buttons work without opening the app.

Good to know: your item names may then show up on the Lock Screen, just like in notifications.

Yes. Try saying “What’s in my fridge in FridgEat,” “What should I cook tonight in FridgEat,” “What’s expiring soon in FridgEat” or “Add something to my FridgEat list.” You’ll find all these shortcuts in the Shortcuts app too.

On iOS 18 or later, you can add the “Photo of my groceries” button to Control Center: it opens FridgEat’s camera right away.

In My profile → Language:

• “FridgEat language” (Automatic, Français or English) changes FridgEat’s voice, the recipes and the seasonal events;
• the menus follow your iPhone’s language: iPhone Settings → FridgEat → Language.

Mostly, yes. Without a connection, you can add items by hand, read a receipt on your iPhone, check your fridge, get your reminders, cook the guided recipes and use your shopping list. You need a connection for AI photo analysis, recipes made for you, looking up an unknown barcode and iCloud sync.

A challenge is a one-week contest between friends: who saves the most food? To start one: My profile → “challenge a friend.” The link only contains your first name and your score for the week, and it expires after 7 days. If your friend doesn’t have FridgEat yet, the link offers to download it from the App Store.

• Lay your groceries flat on a table, labels showing, without stacking them.
• Make sure they’re well lit, with no backlight or glare.
• Shoot from above the table, close enough that every item is in the frame.
• Too much for one photo? Tap “Choose from my photos” and select up to 4 photos: together they count as a single analysis.
• Try not to photograph people or personal documents.

If the photo is too dark or blurry, FridgEat tells you before analyzing it: you can “Try again” or “Analyze anyway.” An analysis usually takes 10 to 30 seconds per photo.

Fresh food and anything that goes in the fridge: dairy, eggs, meat, fish, deli meats, fruit, vegetables, bread, ready meals and cold drinks. Shelf-stable groceries (pasta, rice, canned goods, flour, cookies…) and non-food items are skipped on purpose: add them to your pantry (My kitchen → Pantry) if you want recipes to take them into account. One analysis lists up to 60 items.

Before putting anything away, FridgEat shows you what it found (the “Review” step):

• items in yellow with a “?” are uncertain, so double-check them;
• tap the name to fix it, the date pill to change it (tomorrow, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month) and the storage icon to pick fridge, freezer or pantry;
• tap ✕ to remove an item;
• tap “Add a forgotten item” to complete the list.

Then tap “Put … items in my fridge.” You can also fix everything later: in My kitchen, tap the item, then “Exact date, quantity, aisle.”

On the camera tab, pick “Receipt” mode and snap the whole receipt, nice and flat, with no glare. Long receipt? Take several photos with your iPhone’s Camera app, then tap “Choose from my photos” and select them in order (up to 4).

The receipt is first read on your iPhone, for free: it doesn’t count toward your analyses. On-device reading works best with clearly printed item names, so if items are missing (abbreviations are common on receipts), tap “Reread with AI”: the AI decodes them, and that reread counts as one analysis. If on-device reading finds nothing at all, FridgEat goes straight to the AI: if you’ve already agreed to photo analysis, without asking again.

On-device receipt reading is tuned for French receipts for now: US receipts may need “Reread with AI,” which counts as one analysis.

Yes. On the camera tab, tap “Import an order PDF” and pick the PDF of your order, or a receipt you got by email (save it to the Files app first). FridgEat reads the text of the first 10 pages on your iPhone, for free.

If that doesn’t find any items, the AI takes over: it counts as one analysis, and the whole text of the PDF is sent to it, including your name and delivery address if they’re in it. If you’ve already agreed to photo analysis, this happens without asking again; otherwise, FridgEat asks for your consent first. A PDF that’s just a scanned image has no text: take a photo of it in “Receipt” mode instead.

Pick “Barcode” mode on the camera tab and aim at the code: the item is added on its own, and you can scan several in a row before putting them away. This mode reads EAN-13 and EAN-8 codes, doesn’t use AI and doesn’t count toward your analyses.

The item’s name comes from Open Food Facts, a free and open database; the date is estimated by FridgEat. Unknown item? Name it once and your iPhone will remember it. If the camera isn’t available, type in the numbers (for a 12-digit US code, add a 0 in front).

• “No internet connection”: try again once you’re online, or add your items by hand.
• The photo service isn’t responding: try again a bit later.
• No items recognized: retake the photo closer, sharper and better lit.

Only an analysis that doesn’t go through (no connection, service down, photo rejected) isn’t counted. One that goes through counts, even if it finds no items, so check your photo before sending it. In the meantime, adding by hand and reading a receipt on your iPhone always work.

To recognize your items, your photo is analyzed by AI: it goes through FridgEat’s server, hosted by Cloudflare, then to Anthropic (Claude). FridgEat doesn’t keep your photo. Anthropic may retain it for up to 30 days, except for legal or security reasons, and under its commercial terms doesn’t use it to train its models. The same consent covers the AI rereading a receipt or a PDF.

The very first time you open the app, tapping “Snap my groceries” counts as consent, as the sentence under the button says. Without consent, nothing is sent: you can still add items by hand, scan barcodes or read a receipt on your iPhone. To withdraw consent: My profile → Privacy → “Photo analysis” → “Withdraw consent.”

FridgEat estimates them on your iPhone, using a food storage table: the AI never picks the dates. For an item the table doesn’t know, FridgEat uses a default shelf life for its category (suggested by the analysis). They’re estimates, so the date printed on the package always wins. To enter it: in My kitchen, tap the item, then “Exact date, quantity, aisle.”

• “Use by”: a safety date. Don’t eat it after that: meat, fish, ready meals, fresh cream…
• “Best by”: a quality date. Afterward, the food may lose a bit of flavor but is still fine if it was stored well: yogurt, shelf-stable milk, butter, eggs, hard cheese, pantry staples…
• “No date”: fruit, vegetables, bread. FridgEat estimates a date; your eyes and nose have the final say.

On US packaging, most dates are about quality rather than safety. FridgEat still treats meat, fish, ready meals and fresh dairy as “Use by” to play it safe. You can change any item’s date type under “Date type” (Use by, Best by, No date).

Past a “Best by” date? Look, smell, taste a little. When in doubt, don’t eat it.

If you allow notifications, FridgEat sends you at most one notification a day, most urgent first:

• for a “Use by” item: the day before and on the day, at the time you picked, often with a recipe idea that uses it;
• for a “Best by” or estimated date: a gentle nudge 3 days after the date, to look and smell before tossing it;
• on the day of a dinner planned in “My week,” at your reminder time;
• your weekly recap on Sunday at 7 PM, and your monthly recap early in the month at 7 PM.

The only exception: during a FridgEat+ trial, a trial-ending reminder may come on top of it (see FridgEat+). Items in the freezer and pantry staples don’t trigger reminders. You can act right from the notification without opening the app: “Eaten,” “Freeze it,” “Add to list”…

My profile → Notifications → “Reminder time”: 09:00, 12:00, 18:00 (6 PM, the default), 19:00 or 20:00. Weekly and monthly recaps always arrive at 7 PM. Reminders follow local time: when you travel, a 6 PM reminder shows up at 6 PM where you are.

Switching off “Reminder the day before,” in the same place, turns off all of FridgEat’s reminders (items, planned dinners, recaps), except the FridgEat+ trial-ending one.

1. Notifications are allowed: iPhone Settings → Notifications → FridgEat → “Allow Notifications.” If they’re off, My profile → Notifications shows “Notifications are off,” with an “Open” button.
2. “Reminder the day before” is on, in My profile → Notifications.
3. The item qualifies: it isn’t in the freezer and it has a date. For a “Best by” or estimated date, the reminder comes 3 days after the date, not the day before.
4. One notification a day: several items reaching their date on the same day are grouped together (“… and 2 other items”).
5. A Focus (Do Not Disturb, Sleep…) or the Scheduled Summary can delay or hide notifications.
6. Open FridgEat at least once a week: reminders are lined up for the next 7 days and refreshed every time you open the app.
7. The time had already passed: if you add an item after the reminder time, the day-before reminder is gone; you’ll get the one on the day.

• “Opened today” shortens the date: an opened item doesn’t keep as long (3 days for milk, for example).
• “Freeze it” moves the item to the freezer with a new date (2 to 6 months depending on the food) and stops its reminders. “Defrost” moves it back to the fridge, to eat by the next day.
• Leftovers keep 3 days in the fridge, 3 months in the freezer.

FridgEat includes 220 free guided recipes, in English and French. In Recipes → “Tonight,” FridgEat suggests the ones you can make with what you have, starting with what’s about to expire.

Filters help you choose: Leftovers, Quick (≤ 20 min), Veggie, No oven, Light, On a budget, World flavors, Batch cooking, or “With what I have” to only see recipes you can make without buying anything.

One step per screen, in big type, with an animation for each move. Timers start with a tap, the screen stays on and FridgEat can read the steps out loud. At the end, tell it what’s left: finished ingredients leave the fridge, and extra portions become leftovers to finish within 3 days, or to freeze.

My profile → My cooking profile → “Edit my profile.” There you choose:

• your diet: I eat everything, vegetarian, vegan, no pork, halal or pescatarian;
• your allergies: lactose, gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, mustard, sesame, celery;
• your kitchen tools, how many people you cook for and your skill level.

FridgEat leaves out recipes that don’t fit your diet or allergies. Recipes are for guidance only: always check labels, allergens and cooking times, especially for meat, fish and eggs.

After cooking a recipe, say how many portions are left: FridgEat stores them as leftovers (to eat within 3 days) or in the freezer. When you add an item by hand, you can also check “It’s leftovers.” In Recipes, the “Leftovers” filter and the “Finish your… tonight?” card help you use them up in time.

Recipes → My cookbook → “Import a recipe.” Paste the link and the video’s description (or the recipe text), then tap “Find the recipe.” FridgEat spots the ingredients, tells you what you already have and can add what’s missing to your shopping list. The video is never copied.

FridgEat reads the text on your iPhone first. If that’s not enough, it asks for your consent to send the text and link to the AI (Anthropic). Your first 3 imports are free; after that, imports are part of FridgEat+. For now, a recipe read by the AI comes back in French, even when the app is in English.

It’s a FridgEat+ feature: in Recipes → “Tonight,” on the “Made for you” card, tap “Dream up 3 recipes.” FridgEat writes 3 recipes just for you with what’s in your fridge. You can add a craving (Quick, Veggie, For 4, No oven, Light, Indulgent, On a budget) or type your own.

To do this, your fridge contents, your craving, your diet, your allergies, your kitchen tools, your skill level and the number of people are sent to the AI (Anthropic): FridgEat asks for your consent every time. The recipes you get are checked again against your profile, but always double-check ingredients and allergens.

Recipes → My week: pick a dinner for each night, then add the missing ingredients to your shopping list with one tap. It’s free. With FridgEat+, “Suggest some dinners” fills your week in one tap, starting with what’s about to expire.

In the Groceries tab, add items by typing or dictating them, separated by commas. Missing ingredients from a recipe or your week land there with one tap. The list is sorted by aisle, and you can reorder the aisles to match your store. Check off what goes in your cart, then tap “Shopping done: put it all away”: everything is put away in your fridge, with dates.

My profile → My household → “Invite someone.” Apple’s iCloud sharing window opens: choose how to send the invitation (Messages, Mail, WhatsApp…). The other person installs FridgEat, taps the invitation and joins your fridge, no account needed. Changes usually sync within seconds.

Each of you needs an iPhone signed in to iCloud. Sharing is free, for up to 6 people per household.

When you join a household, all your shared content joins it: your items, shopping list, planned dinners and your activity history (including what you tossed). Other members can see it.

Shared: the fridge, pantry, freezer, leftovers, shopping list, the week’s dinners and the activity history (added, eaten, tossed…), with everyone’s first name.

Just yours: your cooking profile (diet, allergies), your level and points, your badges, your settings, your cookbook and your subscription.

You set the name your household sees in My household, under “Your first name (seen by your household).” The recap shows what each person ate, cooked or added, never who tossed what. The shared activity history, though, records which member did each action.

• Make sure you’re both signed in to iCloud (iPhone Settings → your name) and that FridgEat is up to date.
• Open the iCloud invitation from Messages or Mail on the iPhone where FridgEat is installed.
• Got a fridgeat.app/rejoindre/… link (it may open as fridgeat.app/en/join/…)? That’s a backup link: ask the other person to send you the invitation from “Invite someone” instead.
• A household can have up to 6 people.

• Leave: My profile → My household → “Leave the household.” You keep a copy of the fridge, but you no longer share anything. If you created the household, sharing stops for everyone, and each person keeps their own copy.
• Remove someone (if you created the household): tap the “…” button next to their name, then “Remove from household.” They can no longer see your fridge and keep their own copy.

No, the shared fridge is free for the whole household. A FridgEat+ subscription is tied to the Apple Account that bought it.

• 150 photo or receipt analyses a month to put away your groceries;
• recipes made for you, based on what’s in your fridge;
• unlimited recipe imports (3 free without FridgEat+);
• your week of dinners planned in one tap;
• as a bonus, all the mascot’s accessories and the seasonal outfit collection.

Free forever, no subscription: the mascot and its current outfit, adding by hand, barcode scanning, reading a receipt or a PDF on your iPhone, reminders, step-by-step guided recipes, the shopping list, the shared fridge, planning your week by hand, the recap, challenges and badges. Plus 5 free analyses to start, then 2 a month.

As a guide, in the US: $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year; in the UK: £2.99 a month or £19.99 a year. Prices vary by country: the price the App Store shows when you buy is the one that applies, and you see it before you confirm. Payment goes through your Apple Account: FridgEat never sees your payment details.

If you’re eligible (Apple decides, usually when you’ve never had FridgEat+ on that Apple Account), FridgEat+ is free for 7 days. If you’ve allowed notifications, FridgEat gives you a heads-up 2 days before the trial ends, at 10 AM. Unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, the plan you chose starts and your Apple Account is charged.

If you cancel during the trial, you won’t be charged; under Apple’s rules, your access to FridgEat+ may end right away.

• Without a subscription: 5 free analyses to start, then 2 a month.
• With FridgEat+: 150 analyses a month.

One analysis is one grocery photo (or a batch of 1 to 4 photos sent together), or the AI rereading a receipt or a PDF. These don’t count: reading a receipt or a PDF on your iPhone, barcode scanning, adding by hand, recipes made for you and imports. Only an analysis that doesn’t go through (no connection, service down, photo rejected) isn’t counted: one that goes through counts, even if it finds no items.

The counter resets on the 1st of each month (at midnight UTC), and unused analyses don’t roll over. It’s tied to each iPhone: reinstalling the app doesn’t reset it. Without a subscription, what you have left is shown on the camera tab. Hit the limit? You can still put away your groceries by hand, with barcodes or by reading your receipt on your iPhone.

Your subscription is managed through your Apple Account:

• on your iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → FridgEat, then “Cancel Subscription”;
• or in the app: My profile → FridgEat+ → “Manage my subscription.”

Cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period to avoid renewal. You keep FridgEat+ until the end of the period you’ve paid for, then the app goes back to the free version: your fridge and your data stay put. Deleting the app doesn’t cancel your subscription.

Payments go through Apple, so Apple decides on App Store refunds, and we can’t trigger one ourselves. Go to https://reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with your Apple Account, choose “Request a refund,” then select the FridgEat+ purchase and give a reason. If Apple approves it, FridgEat+ turns off on your iPhone.

If the law gives you a right to a refund (for example under the legal guarantee of conformity or your right to cancel) and Apple doesn’t grant it, email us at bonjour@fridgeat.app: we’ll refund you directly. The cases are listed in our Terms of Use.

Make sure your iPhone uses the same Apple Account you bought with, then tap “Restore purchases”: at the very bottom of My profile, or on the FridgEat+ screen. If you see “No purchases to restore for this Apple Account,” the purchase was probably made with another Apple Account, or the subscription is no longer active.

Your purchase is waiting for approval, for example from a parent through Ask to Buy (Apple Family Sharing). FridgEat+ unlocks as soon as it’s approved.

On your iPhone. If it’s signed in to iCloud, your fridge, shopping list, planned dinners and activity history are also synced to your iCloud (for a shared fridge, to the iCloud of the person who created the household), and to your household members if you have a household. We can’t read that data.

Your cooking profile, cookbook, level and settings stay on your iPhone (and in its iCloud backup).

Nothing, until you use an AI feature. With your consent, the server receives:

• your grocery or receipt photos, shrunk on your iPhone and stripped of metadata (no location, date or device model);
• the text of a receipt or PDF, when the AI needs to reread it;
• for recipes made for you: your fridge contents, craving, diet, allergies, kitchen tools, skill level and number of people;
• for a recipe import: the text and link you pasted, if reading it on your iPhone isn’t enough.

The server, hosted by Cloudflare, passes this content to Anthropic (Claude) for analysis and doesn’t keep it. It keeps:

• a pseudonymous install ID, your analysis counters and security data (Apple’s App Attest), deleted no later than 12 months after your last use;
• if you subscribe, your subscription status (active or not) for a few hours, with your Apple purchase ID, which is used to check FridgEat+;
• technical logs, kept for up to 7 days according to Cloudflare: ours, with no content at all, and Cloudflare’s, which may include your IP address, your install ID and, if you subscribe, your Apple purchase ID.

The details are in our Privacy Policy.

FridgEat doesn’t save your photos: not on the server, not in your photo library. Anthropic may retain them for up to 30 days, except for legal or security reasons, and under its commercial terms doesn’t use them to train its models.

Yes: each time you scan, except for items you named yourself, your iPhone sends the barcode straight to Open Food Facts, a free and open database, to look up its name. As with any connection, Open Food Facts also sees your iPhone’s IP address. Names you give items yourself stay on your iPhone.

My profile → Privacy → “Erase all my data” → “Erase,” then confirm with “Erase everything.” Your fridge, shopping list, week plan, cooking profile (allergies included), cookbook, recap, levels and settings are erased, and settings go back to their defaults.

Heads-up:

• items, the shopping list, planned dinners and activity history synced to iCloud are deleted too, on every iPhone signed in to the same iCloud account;
• if you’re in a household, erasing also empties the shared fridge for all its members, and you stay a member of the household. To leave everyone else’s fridge alone, leave the household first (My profile → My household → “Leave the household”).

Not erased: your subscription (managed by Apple), iCloud backups of your iPhone that were already made, and the server counters, which delete themselves after 12 months without use (so your free analyses aren’t reset). Deleting the app erases the data on your iPhone, but not the copy synced to your iCloud.

My profile → Privacy → “Photo analysis” → “Withdraw consent.” FridgEat will ask again before your next photo. Recipes made for you and AI recipe imports ask for your consent every time.

In the current version of the app, no usage analytics are sent: external measurement is turned off. The “Help improve FridgEat” switch (My profile → Privacy) is still there, and on by default. While it’s on, a random ID is stored on your iPhone without being sent anywhere, and “See what gets sent” lists the latest events, kept only in memory. If you turn it off, FridgEat erases that ID and that list.

• Easiest: restore your old iPhone’s iCloud backup onto the new one; FridgEat is included.
• With the same iCloud account, your fridge, shopping list and planned dinners also come back through sync.
• For a full backup file: My profile → Backup → “Back up my fridge,” then “Restore a backup” on the new iPhone. Restoring replaces what’s there now (you can undo right after). Keep that file somewhere safe: it holds your whole profile, allergies included.

If you have FridgEat+, then tap “Restore purchases.”