How to use Pantry Expiry Queue

In this guide What Pantry Expiry Queue does Step by step The four lanes The used log What the app does not decide Where your data is stored Getting the list out Limits Tips Questions and answers

What Pantry Expiry Queue does

Printed dates are scattered across dozens of packs in a fridge and a cupboard, and nothing tells you to eat the spinach before the eggs. Pantry Expiry Queue is not a full kitchen inventory. It answers one question: what should I use first today? You enter foods and their dates, and the page sorts them into lanes by how close each date is.

It is a single web page with no account. It runs in the browser and works without a connection once loaded.

Step by step

1. Under Add food, type what the food is and pick the date printed on the pack.
2. Optionally add an amount, a place (Pantry, Fridge, Freezer or Counter) and a note such as the day you opened it.
3. Press Add to queue. The item appears as a card in the lane that matches its date.
4. Look at the Use first card at the top. It always shows the single most urgent item.
5. When you have eaten something, press Used it. When you have thrown it away, press Bin it.
6. Come back tomorrow. Cards move into the more urgent lanes by themselves as their dates approach.

The four lanes

Every card shows the days left and when it will drop into the next lane, for example that it moves to 3 days in two days' time. The lanes re-sort themselves whenever you open the page on a new day.

The used log

Pressing Used it removes the item from the queue and records it in a small log with the date you used it and how many days were left. An item used on or before its printed date counts as used in time, and the page shows how many of your used items made it. Bin it removes the item from the queue and records nothing, so binned food is not part of that figure. The log keeps the 200 most recent entries.

What the app does not decide

The queue shows the printed date and how far away it is. It never says whether food is safe to eat. A date on a pack can mean best before or use by, and the app does not know which, so that judgment stays with you.

Where your data is stored

The item list, the used log and a counter are kept in the local storage of this browser. There is no network code in the page at all. A second browser or a second device has its own, separate queue.

If the saved data cannot be read when the page opens, the raw text is placed in the import box instead of being thrown away, so you can copy it out and repair it.

Getting the list out

• Copy use-first list puts the current queue on the clipboard as plain text, for a message or a note on the fridge.
• Download CSV saves the queue with lane and days-left columns.
• Print list prints the Use first card and the lanes.
• Download backup (JSON) saves everything, including the used log. Import it in another browser from a file or by pasting. The app checks the backup, tells you how many rows it would skip and asks before replacing your queue.
• Reset everything asks twice.

Limits

• No barcode lookup. You type the name and pick the date.
• No notifications. You have to open the page to see what is due.
• No recipes, shopping lists or meal plans.
• One queue per browser, with no shared household list.

Tips

1. Add items while unpacking the shopping, when every pack passes through your hands anyway.
2. Only enter what actually goes off. Tins dated years ahead will just fill the Later lane.
3. Use the note for the date you opened something, since an opened pack rarely lasts until its printed date.
4. Open the page before you plan dinner. The Use first card is the answer to what to cook.
5. Press Used it only for food you really ate, and Bin it for everything else. Bin it removes the item without a log entry, so the used-in-time figure describes only what you marked as used.

Questions and answers

Does it tell me if food is still safe?

No. It shows the printed date and the days remaining. It makes no safety judgment.

What goes in the Use today lane?

Anything dated today or earlier.

Can my household share one list?

Not automatically. Each browser has its own queue. You can pass a JSON backup to someone else to import.

Do I need to be online?

Only to load the page. Everything you enter stays in your browser.