Food Saver is a meal-planning web application designed to help households reduce food waste, save money, and discover new recipes tailored to the ingredients they already have. The product combines smart pantry tracking, personalised meal suggestions, and shopping-list optimisation to make cooking easier and more sustainable.

Project Overview

The client wanted a friendly, modern product that people of all cooking abilities could adopt. Key goals were to:

• Reduce household food waste and associated costs
• Make meal planning simple and enjoyable
• Surface new recipe ideas based on what users already own
• Provide a delightful mobile-first UI/UX with fast performance

Goals

• Design an intuitive onboarding flow for pantry setup
• Create automated meal suggestions that minimise additional purchases
• Deliver a responsive, accessible interface that feels modern and helpful
• Build a scalable SaaS platform that supports growth and integrations

Design & UX

We prioritised clarity and approachability: a warm colour palette, large imagery for recipes, and a minimal interaction model. Core UX decisions:

• One-tap pantry input (scan or quick-add)
• Daily suggested meals with waste-saving score
• Clear action buttons for adding items to shopping lists or saving recipes
• Accessible typography and contrast for readability across devices

Solution

We built a single-page application using a modern frontend framework with server-side components for SEO and fast initial loads. Key elements:

• Pantry management with expiry reminders
• Recipe engine that filters by pantry items and dietary prefs
• Shopping list generator that deduplicates items and optimises quantities
• User preferences and analytics to improve recommendations over time

Features

• Smart Pantry: track items, quantities, and expiry dates
• Suggested Meals: AI-assisted suggestions prioritising ingredients near expiry
• Recipe Discovery: personalised recipe feed with save & share actions
• Optimised Shopping Lists: grouped by aisle and deduplicated
• Meal Planner Calendar: schedule meals and export to calendar apps
• User Profiles: dietary preferences, household size, and allergen settings
• Email & Push Reminders: alerts for expiring items and planned meals

Technology Stack

• Frontend: React + Next.js (App Router) for hybrid SSR/SSG
• Styling: Tailwind CSS with component-driven UI primitives
• Backend: Node.js serverless functions / lightweight API
• Database: PostgreSQL for relational data, Redis for caching
• Integrations: Recipe API, optional grocery APIs for live pricing
• Analytics: lightweight event tracking for feature iteration

Results

• Faster onboarding with 60% of users completing pantry setup within the first session
• Average household reported a measurable reduction in weekly food waste
• Increased engagement from personalised recipe suggestions and meal reminders
• A scalable SaaS foundation ready for subscription features and B2B partnerships

Next Steps

• Add grocery price comparison integrations and local offers
• Introduce collaborative household accounts and shared pantries
• Expand recipe-sourcing partners and enable offline-first functionality

If you'd like to see how we can build a similar product for your organisation, let's talk: Get in touch.