Guides

What food actually costs, how long it keeps, and how to stop throwing it away.

• A freezer inventory you will actually keep

  6 September 2026 · Most freezer lists get abandoned. The smallest one that survives, what to write on each package, and why freezer dates are quality dates and not deadlines.

• First in, first out, at home

  6 September 2026 · How commercial kitchens rotate stock, what the same two-part rule looks like in a home kitchen, and the three places it reliably breaks down.

• How long food really keeps

  6 September 2026 · Refrigerator, freezer and pantry storage times from federal and extension sources, and why a freezer number means something different from a fridge number.

• Planning meals around what expires

  6 September 2026 · A ten-minute weekly habit: read what is closest to its date, plan the meals around that, and write the shopping list last rather than first.

• What date labels on food actually mean

  6 September 2026 · Almost no date on American food packaging is required by federal law, and the ones that appear are about quality, not safety.

• What food waste costs a household

  6 September 2026 · The EPA put the price of uneaten food at $728 a person a year in April 2025, or $2,913 for a household of four.

• What groceries cost per person

  6 September 2026 · What USDA's food plans and BLS spending data say a week of groceries costs one person, and why the honest answer is a range rather than a single number.

• When an AI says it can't tell

  6 September 2026 · Why a system that reports its uncertainty is worth more than one that always answers, and how to read machine-extracted data as a draft.

Keep track of it

Pantry Pro keeps a real inventory of the food in your house — what you have, where it is, and when it runs out — from a photograph of a receipt or a shelf, and tells you what you can cook from it tonight.