The Pantry.App is a web application that helps you manage your supplies. You can organize your supplies into categories and keep track of expiration dates. The Pantry.App also helps you create and manage shopping lists.

Supported platforms

The Speisekammer.App is available as an iOS, Android, and web app. There's also an API for integration into your own applications.

Functions

The Pantry.App offers a variety of features to help you manage your supplies. These include:

Printing the food supply

All steps up to the final print Overview of all storage locations

First, we will show you how to print a list of all storage locations. We have taken screenshots of the app and highlighted the relevant button.

Next, we will show you how to create a list for a single storage location

First, open the warehouse whose items you want to print.

Why does the print contain these strange rectangles ☐☐☐?

As soon as the PDF is exported or the printout is made, the listed inventories will inevitably become outdated over time. Therefore, the printout should be updated regularly. If this is done in the app, a new printout can easily be created.

If a smartphone is not available, a withdrawal can also be made on the printout: For each item taken, exactly one box is crossed out ☐ - because exactly one box is printed for each item. This way, even after several items have been taken, you always know exactly how many items are still in stock. The inventory can then be updated and transferred in the app at regular intervals.

If you're only going to be offline for a short period, there's no need to worry: With our iOS and Android app, you can also work offline temporarily.

Have fun managing your supplies!

How do I invite a member to my community?

Instructions for the mobile app (iOS and Android)

Instructions for the WebApp

Open the WebApp and log in

Go to the community members page.

Prior to iOS and Android versions 1.4.0, there was a join link. This feature has been replaced by the QR code. The join link is no longer available.

It is not possible to remove a member yourself. Please contact support at support@speisekammer.app for manual removal.

How do I change the language of the app?

Here's how it works:

Wechsle zum Tab “Konto”

Open the settings

Select language

Save changes

How do I invite someone to my team license?

Organizing items in categories

What categories give you

Assigning categories

When creating or editing an item you pick its category – or create a new one on the spot. Items you recorded earlier can be sorted in at any time; when moving items, Smantry adjusts the assignment automatically.

Tips for useful categories

Less is more: five to ten categories matching how you actually shop and cook beat thirty theoretically perfect ones. Mirror the zones of your real pantry – then digital and physical order match.

Printing your own barcodes for homemade goods

Why print your own barcodes?

How it works

Create your homemade item in Smantry (e.g. "apple sauce 2026"). The app generates a barcode for it, which you print and stick on the jar or box. From then on your homemade goods behave like any bought product: scan, count, get reminded.

Practical tips

Marking items as unsealed

Managing your team licence: assigning, revoking and reassigning seats

Where to find seat management

What the screen shows

Assigning a seat

Freeing up a seat

The seat is free immediately and can be reassigned right away. The removed person loses premium access; their own data stays in their account.

Staff changes: always two steps

The team licence and the community are two different things. Anyone leaving the company has to be removed from both:

This article explains the difference between community and team licence: Community, team licence and storage location

The licence holder

The licence holder cannot be removed from their own licence. For companies we therefore recommend registering the licence on a company account with a shared company email address rather than on a private person. That way the contract survives when that person leaves.

Frequently asked questions

Widgets: expiry dates on your home screen

The two widget sizes

What the colors mean

If nothing is due, a green check mark shows "Nothing expiring soon" – the best state a pantry widget can be in.

How to set up the widget

iOS: long-press the home screen, tap the plus in the top left, search for "Smantry" and pick a size. Android: long-press the home screen, choose "Widgets", find "Smantry" and drag the widget where you want it.

Tip: put the widget on your first home screen page. The casual glance when unlocking replaces deliberate checking – that's how the routine forms that stops things from expiring.

Small and medium-sized enterprises

Use in leisure time

Smantry App for clubs

Organization of camps and excursions

Scouts regularly organize camps and outings, where they bring food and supplies. For example, making stick bread over a campfire requires flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and water. Are there enough supplies left from the last camp, or do we need to buy more? How much flour is about to expire and should therefore be used up soon?

Inventory management

The Pantry App can help you manage your supplies and keep track of everything. With expiration dates and quantities, every organizer has an overview, even on the go, and the ability to plan and organize supplies and purchases.

Modelling several sites and field offices in your business

The setup in three steps

Why field offices are storage locations, not separate communities

Everyone in a community sees the same stock – which is usually exactly what you want for field offices: headquarters can see what is left at each site. Storage locations are not limited, so you can model any number of field offices.

Samples without a barcode: your own photos

Not every sample has a barcode. Create the item by hand and photograph its front directly in the app, so everyone on the team recognises the sample again. Enable “Enable private product images” in the settings – the photos are visible only to you and the members of your community.

How many seats do you need?

Everyone who maintains the stock takes one seat of the team licence – the licence holder included. For 20 employees plus management that is 21 seats.

Plan for staff turnover from the start

Seats belong to the company, not to the person. When someone leaves, remove them from the team licence – the seat is free immediately – and from the community as well, so their access to the stock ends.

The individual steps are described here: Managing your team licence

How can I cancel my subscription?

Subscription completed via Apple

For

Subscription completed via Google

There is also a good guide for

Subscription completed through us or via the WebApp

If you subscribed

If you still have an older

If you don't know exactly where you purchased your subscription, please send us all the necessary information to support@speisekammer.app and we will be happy to help you.

We would really appreciate it if you could tell us why you want to cancel your subscription so we can improve in the future.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

How can I define a minimum / target stock?

Notifications for expiring food items

If you have items in stock that are about to expire, you can have the pantry app notify you. The notifications will appear as push notifications on your smartphone.

Notifications will be sent for 30 days. After that, you'll need to open the app to receive further notifications. This ensures that you use the app regularly and keep track of your food.

Configuring notifications

You also need to set a reasonable warning period in your account—that is, the number of days you want to be warned before the expiration date. You can configure this setting in your account itself.

The Smantry App requires permission to send push notifications to deliver notifications. You will be asked for this permission the first time you launch the app. If you do not grant this permission, we will not be able to send you notifications.

Resolve payment issues

If you have a subscription with us and are having problems with your payment, you can find instructions here on how to resolve the issue.

The most common issues you can resolve by updating your payment information are:

Payment via the WebApp (via Stripe)

If you purchased your subscription through our web app, payment is usually processed through Stripe. Unfortunately, Stripe doesn't automatically create a link to update your payment. Please contact support, and we'll create a suitable link for you.

Google Play Store

If you purchased your subscription through the Google Play Store, we unfortunately cannot help you directly. Please contact Google for assistance. The following link provides instructions for resolving payment issues:

Apple App Store

If you purchased your subscription through the Apple App Store, we're unfortunately unable to assist you directly. Please contact Apple for assistance. You can find instructions for resolving payment issues at the following link:

I have an anonymous account that I can no longer access. Is my data lost?

How can I completely reset the Smantry App?

How do I fix items without a warehouse location assigned?

Error description

In our app and web app, there was an error that caused an invalid warehouse to be linked to some articles. In the item overview, the error message displayed in these cases was:

The error occurred because in certain cases no valid warehouse was assigned when creating articles. Moreover, it was not possible to correct the warehouse location afterwards via the WebApp.

Troubleshooting

We have successfully fixed the error. From now on, articles will always be created with one of your valid warehouses. Additionally, we have expanded the WebApp so that you can now easily correct faulty articles.

New features and improvements:

Filter for items without warehouse assignment:

Warehouse assignment via the WebApp:

Instructions for correcting affected articles

Open the WebApp and navigate to

Choose your community.

Use the new filter

Click on the button

Assign the correct warehouse to the item.

Save the changes.

After the successful correction, the article will be displayed with the correct storage location and the error message

Note: Warehouse assignment possible on mobile devices

You can perform the inventory allocation not only in the WebApp, but also easily in the mobile app.

How can I import an existing Excel or CSV file?

How can I import data from the iOS app into the WebApp?

Help, the barcode scanner is not working!

The process through the barcode scanning procedure

Click on the blue Scan button (if it does not appear, the device does not have a camera, or does not have access to it).

The app's access to the browser must be allowed:

The camera image is displayed. If the scanner is correctly aligned with the barcode (barcode should fill about half of the camera image) and the image is sharp enough, it will be automatically recognized. Open barcode scanner via the blue buttonAllow camera accessHold the barcode up to the camera

If this product is not yet in stock (left), it can be created. If it is already in stock (right), you will automatically see the products in stock and can edit them directly from this screen. Of course, you can still create a new product with the same barcode.

If you click on "Create Product", the product will be searched for at

The item will be searched for in the personal pantry.

4. The article has been found and can be saved! If necessary, you can still correct the values, add the expiration date, enter the quantity of identical products, and make notes.

When you click on "Add Article", the article will be loaded from the global article database and can be created.

Do I really have to give permission for camera access every time?

If the regular confirmation for camera access is bothering you, you can also permanently enable camera access.

For iOS (Safari):

Click on the "AA" icon at the top left, then on Website Settings, and then on Camera - Allow.

For Android (Chrome):

Click on the lock icon at the top left, then on Website Settings, and then on Camera Access - Allow.

Help! My inventory is not syncing

No internet connection

A functioning internet connection is required for synchronization. But don't worry, if you temporarily lose your internet connection, any modified communities, storage locations, and items will automatically resynchronize once the internet connection is restored.

By the way, this cause of error can also have less obvious reasons: For example, an internet access for the Pantry.App blocked in the settings, a firewall, or an ad blocker. Here, restarting the device might help.

Lack of membership in the desired community

Users can synchronize storage locations and items across multiple user accounts if they are members of the same community. If you can't see your partner's items, you may not yet be a member of the community they created. In this article, you will learn

Different community selected

While the WebApp displays all communities on the "Communities" page, in the iOS or Android app, one selects a community within the user account to be displayed. The selection field shows all the communities you are a member of.

Are different storage locations and items displayed - or in case of doubt, none at all? Then you might not have selected the desired community. Simply choose the correct community in your account - this setting is saved in the account, by the way.

Use of different accounts

Anonymous user accounts (without registration) cannot be synchronized across multiple devices on the Pantry.App.

If you start without registering (using an anonymous account) on one device and then create an account via email, Google, or Apple on another device, a second account will be created in the background.

The synchronization of a user account requires the same login data across all devices (for more on the exception with multiple accounts in a community, see below). If multiple accounts have been created for you, please delete all unused accounts. If your previously used account is an anonymous account without registration, you can then link it with your email, your Google account, or your Apple account afterwards. It does not matter whether this is done in the WebApp, the iOS app, or the Android app.

If an error occurs when linking an existing account with the desired email address after deleting unnecessary accounts, please contact support.

We hope this article helps you with synchronization issues - for comments, questions, and problems, please write to us at any time at support@speisekammer.app.

Connect external barcode scanner

The continuous recording of food at home

The groceries at home can be digitally recorded with the Pantry App. The challenge is not the initial recording (which is often associated with spring cleaning and is fun), but the continuous maintenance of the inventory.

A barcode scanner significantly simplifies this task, as it allows the correct item to be quickly located. Scanning with a smartphone camera works fairly well, but an external scanner definitely has the advantage: its image sensor is optimized for reading barcodes, and additional lighting ensures optimal contrast when scanning in poor lighting conditions.

As a technical standard, it has been established that a barcode scanner is integrated as a keyboard. Thus, the barcode scanner reads the underlying identification number of the barcode and types it out as if on a keyboard.

The scanning process

If you have connected your scanner as a keyboard with your device (this can be a USB or Bluetooth scanner, whether on an iOS/Android/Windows device), then you can also use this scanner for the Pantry App.

So, a special scanner, such as a NETUM Scanner from our store, is not required, even though we have already tested it with the app:

Shop with pantry-related itemsFor a limited time, we have set up a shop for a small selection of products. Our barcode scanners have been tested directly with the Pantry App. They are all wireless, and make scanning your items a breeze, even in poor lighting conditions. /**/Pantry AppMatthias Schmid

A Bluetooth scanner paired with a mobile phone has the huge advantage that the scanning process can be done completely wirelessly.

Wireless Netum C740 barcode scanner that can be connected to a mobile phone via Bluetooth.

Features in the Pantry App

In every screen where the blue barcode icon is available, scanning with an external scanner is also possible.

The blue barcode icon indicates on which screens scanning with an external scanner is also possible.

In the window that opens after the scanning process, there are three functions:

Display product information for the scanned item

Items

Listing of all products with this barcode in your inventory. Here you can directly adjust the inventory with +/- - so you can also quickly remove items that have been consumed.

Nutritional statistics

Is my data safe?

Summary of Privacy Policy

Details on the privacy policy

With the Smantry App, we've fully embraced synchronization, so the data is stored on a server. We use a secure Google server located in Frankfurt, Germany.

If someone gains unauthorized access to our database on the server, they won't be able to use all the information unless the name of the storage location or community can be traced back to an address or family name. While the IP address could be used to identify the provider, this is always located in a larger city, where there are thousands of households—making it impossible to find a specific stash.

If there are further privacy concerns, a purely offline version might be interesting in the future, so that you retain complete control over your data. If this sounds like something you'd like, please vote for this feature here:

You can find further details in our

Smantry App Beta Program

Smantry App pre-release versions for testing

If you would like to be the first to test pre-release versions of the Smantry App, you can participate in our beta program.

For iOS, you'll need the Testflight app to download our beta version. You can get both at the following link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/gNSUhCi2

For Android you can participate here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/app.speisekammer

The account details are the same as in the App Store version – the pre-release version will be rolled out to all users as soon as we no longer detect any issues during testing. You can find out what's new/changed in the beta version in the changelog in the App Store or Play Store.

Feel free to send us feedback on the current version via support@speisekammer.app !

It's also possible that there is no beta available at the moment - but if so, we're currently preparing one for you and with a little patience, you'll soon get a new version on your phone.

Have fun testing! 🚀

Terms

Communities

With the Smantry WebApp you can manage items in your household together with all team members.

Because we know the app is also useful for managing vacation homes, camps, etc., you can switch between different households and communities. On the Communities page, you can select all the households you belong to. You can see your household members, their total food needs, and their current status.

Community / Household

Once you've selected a community, an overview of all storage locations within that community appears. Items can be stored in each storage location. You can also see which people are members of that household.

Storage locations

The list of storage locations features clearly recognizable icons for quick retrieval. The list can be expanded as desired, allowing you to organize your household the way you want.

Members of the community

In this view, you can see all the people who are members of this household and thus have access to managing the items in this household. All these people are also included in the household's food and beverage needs. You can also invite other people to the household via their email address using this view. For example, you can invite your husband and children so they can get an overview of your household with you.

Inventories

If you select a storage location in the community overview, you'll see a view of the inventory stored at that location. You'll see the number of items, their descriptions, how many calories an item contains, and its shelf life.

Security of your data

What happens during connection problems?

Even if the app can't load items for a moment, your data is safely stored on the server. Changes you make while offline are transferred as soon as your device is back online – see the offline mode article for details.

Do you lose data when switching devices?

No. Your stock is tied to your account, not your device: sign in on the new device and everything is back. Just make sure you use a registered account – with an anonymous account without an email address, access can be lost.

Preparation statistics

Preparation statistics, preparation information and emergency planning Identifying the needs of a community

Even without prep mode, the Smantry app records the nutritional values of stored products and creates statistics. Learn more here:

Additionally, you can ensure that each member of your community enters their energy and water needs in their profile. This allows the pantry app to calculate your community's total energy needs. This setting can only be configured in the web app.

An example of this would look like this:

Determining the reach of a community's food and beverages

To determine the range, you must activate the preparation mode.

In the WebApp, click on User Account, and then on Activate Preparation Mode

In the mobile app, go to your user profile, then click on Settings and then activate the “Preparation Info”:

Preparation statistics

The preparation statistics show you how many days of energy and water you have in stock to fully cover your needs in the event of a quarantine.

In the WebApp you can see the number of days for which you have energy and water in stock to fully cover your needs in the event of a quarantine.

What are the differences? Comparing WebApp and native App

What apps and app versions are available?

Our WebApp with cloud synchronization

This web variant available since September 2019 in version 4.0 can be used in the browser at

Help, the barcode scanner isn't working! Here you can see which browser we recommend for using the WebApp and how the scanning process works. You will also find a tip on how to grant permanent permission for scanning.Pantry AppMatthias Schmid

Pantry App for iOS Pantry (classic) iOS Version 3.5

The Pantry App (classic) for iOS, which was available from 2013 - 2020 in the

This app cannot synchronize

Pantry 4.0 native

Our team is currently developing a brand-new iOS app that will enable real-time synchronization with our web app. A subscription completed for the web app will also be valid for the new iOS app.

Pantry App for Android

We had an Android app as a Webview in the store for a while since March 2020, see

Pantry App 4.0 for Android

Our team is currently developing a brand-new Android app that will enable real-time synchronization with our WebApp. A subscription completed for the WebApp will also be valid for the new Android app.

Why not all products are found using a barcode scanner - and where our data comes from

How does a barcode work?

A barcode, also known as a stripe code, is a machine-readable identification number. It makes products identifiable for commercial use and retail - ideally unique on a global scale.

The first barcode (Universal Product Code, abbreviated UPC) was introduced in 1973 in the USA. The commonly used UPC-A in the USA consists of 12 digits. It quickly becomes apparent that, aside from the country and the manufacturing company, not much information is contained within those 12 digits.

An EAN13 barcode - the machine-readable part on top, below the encoded 13-digit identification number. No more information is contained directly in the barcode. By

In Europe, three years later in 1976, the European Article Number (abbreviated EAN) was introduced. It is 13 digits long and compatible with the UPC system.

Identification scheme since 2015

Since 2015, the identification numbers used worldwide in commerce have been renamed to Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). It is 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits long and always contains a check digit to detect errors during machine reading.

How does one access the product data?

GS1 Germany GmbH based in Cologne is the only official provider of EAN8/EAN13 codes in Germany. Anyone who wants to sell a product with a barcode must purchase a unique barcode from there. Up to 30 barcodes can be retrieved for free per day from there - however, without all the relevant sizes that are of interest for the storage of food. For example, the product name, the package size, and the nutritional values are missing.

As a test, I used the official barcode search of GS1 Germany called

The search in Gepir yields the following result: Company name "HARIBO ESPAÑA S.A.U." as well as an address.

Unfortunately, we can't do much with this yet. Commercial use of the service is costly and does not provide us with the data we are interested in. At a minimum, these would be: name, quantity, nutritional values of the food, and information on any allergens it may contain.

The first pantry app with product data: Crowdsourcing

When we launched the first pantry app in the App Store in 2013, there wasn't even a barcode scanner - and accordingly, no product data was stored. Each user had to enter their items manually, which was quite laborious. In December 2015, the time had finally come: We created a product database for the pantry, with which users still had to enter food items, but these were then shared among all users! This way, at least common items were usually already in the database, and the recording of stock or shopping became much faster.

However, over time, weaknesses of the approach have become apparent:

Thus, there was only one field per article for the product name - even though the app was also used internationally. People then filled in the name sometimes in Swedish, sometimes in English, sometimes in German.

Although the app had storage locations, it seems that these were not sufficient for organizing items for some users. Thus, cryptic category names like "30 Juice", "31 UHT Milk" quickly emerged, which were only understandable to the respective user.

Some users have meticulously transferred all nutritional values - others have completely skipped this part. The level of detail of the products varied accordingly. Excerpt from the product database of the Pantry App, where product names have been entered by different users in various languages.

The current Pantry WebApp

Before we released our current WebApp for public beta in 2019, we spent a long time searching for the right model regarding the product database. We considered how we could improve the quality of the existing data.

Ultimately, we have actively decided to stop using our own product database and instead switch to the open model of

Products can be accessed directly from OpenFoodFacts and used for one's own purposes. The product data is licensed under the

A few facts about OpenFoodFacts

Compared to our first database, OpenFoodFacts has a very extensive data schema. For instance, name fields are provided for any language.

Additionally, OpenFoodFacts allows for the uploading of photos of the product, the list of ingredients, and the nutritional value table. This enables automated machine quality control of the entered nutritional information, significantly improving the quality of the data.

Everything that can be found on OpenFoodFacts about the bag of Haribo from the example above can be found

Pantry App and OpenFoodFacts

Since October 7, 2019, we have been retrieving product data from OpenFoodFacts and, of course, also contributing back for the benefit of all users.

Since then, our users have created 10,184 articles from scratch and edited 20,441 articles, mostly to add missing attributes.

With this, our users have created 0.5% of all articles in the global database - that's an impressive sum, from which users in Germany benefit especially! A heartfelt thank you at this point for the careful entry of data, which will be very conveniently available to all future users.

Although it may happen that individual products are not found when scanning, we believe in the approach: A product database maintained by users is independent of the interests of food manufacturers, can be expanded as needed, and is unrestrictedly usable for all future purposes.

So if you come across an article that is not found, and you have to enter it yourself - think of the many users who will also scan the article, they will thank you for your product entry! 😊

Offline mode

Community, team licence and storage location: what is what?

Team licence – who may use Smantry

The team licence is your contract. It holds a number of seats, and each seat lets one person use Smantry with the full feature set. The team licence says nothing about which stock someone can see.

Community – who sees which stock

A community is a shared stock. Everyone in a community sees the same items and can edit them. A community is therefore not a team and not a family – it is a shared data space. For a company, the community is usually the business itself.

Storage location – where something sits

Inside a community you create as many storage locations as you like: shelves, cold rooms, vehicles – or entire sites. Storage locations are not limited.

The rule of thumb Three examples

How the two work together

Team licence and community are independent of each other. Someone can be a member of a community without occupying a seat – the limits of the free version then apply to them. And someone can hold a seat without sharing a community with you.

That is why staff joining or leaving always affects both sides. Here is how to do it: Managing your team licence

How you can support us

For developers Provide your own API integration

The Smantry App is designed to be extensible in various directions. In addition to our web app and mobile apps, we also offer an API. As a developer, you can help us by providing your own API integration and connecting your application with the Smantry App. This allows you to, for example, synchronize your own application with the Smantry App or display data from the Speisekammer.App in your application.

API

Open source projects

The following open source projects have emerged around the Speisekammer.App API. Ideas for future projects Examples of use

General information

Start here

Instructions

Use cases

Frequently Asked Questions

Reference

Support

Developer

On this page

Start here

Instructions

Use cases

Frequently Asked Questions

Reference

Support

Developer

Managing your team licence: assigning, revoking and reassigning seats

Where to find seat management

What the screen shows

Assigning a seat

Freeing up a seat

Staff changes: always two steps

The licence holder

Frequently asked questions