The average UK household throws away £800 worth of food per year — most of it because items were forgotten in the fridge until they expired. A best before app solves this by sending you a push notification before anything expires, so nothing gets forgotten at the back of the shelf. Fango is the most capable option available in 2026: it reads your grocery receipt using AI and adds all your products automatically, no manual entry needed.
- What it does: tracks best-before and use-by dates, sends push reminders before food expires
- Best option: Fango — AI receipt scanning adds products automatically, no sign-up required
- Free tier: 5 products + 5 receipt scans, no account needed
- Privacy: your fridge data stays on your device — no cloud account
What a Best Before App Does
A best before app is an expiry date tracker for your fridge, freezer and pantry. You add products with their expiry dates, and the app notifies you before they go off. The best apps make adding products as fast as possible — because any friction means you'll stop using it within a week. Not sure what "best before" actually means? See: what does best before mean?
There are three main ways apps handle adding products:
- Manual entry — type the product name and date yourself. Slow and tedious after a full shop.
- Barcode scanning — scan the barcode to look up the product. Faster, but you still need to enter the expiry date manually for each item.
- AI receipt scanning — photograph your grocery receipt. AI reads all the products, assigns estimated expiry dates, and adds everything at once. The fastest method by far.
Fango uses AI receipt scanning as its primary input method, which means adding 15 products from a weekly shop takes about 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes.
Scan your grocery receipt after shopping. AI reads the products and adds them to your fridge with expiry dates automatically. Get a push notification 1–14 days before expiry. No sign-up, your fridge data stays on your device.
Download Fango for free
What to Look For in a Best Before App
Not all expiry trackers are equal. Here are the features that matter most:
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Fast product entry. If adding a product takes more than 10 seconds, you'll stop using the app. AI receipt scanning is the gold standard — one photo adds your entire shop at once.
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Customisable push notifications. You need to choose how many days in advance you get a reminder — 1 day for raw meat, 7 days for yoghurt. One-size-fits-all reminders miss the point.
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No account required. Creating an account is friction that prevents you from starting. Privacy matters too — your fridge inventory is personal; it should stay on your device, not in a cloud database tied to your identity.
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Available on your platform. iOS and Android support both matter. Make sure the app works on your phone before committing to a workflow.
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Free to try. A free tier lets you test the app with real groceries before paying. Any app worth using should let you evaluate it without a subscription.
How Fango Works as a Best Before App
The app supports receipts from 26 countries and 14 currencies, so it works whether you're shopping in the UK, Finland, Germany, or Australia. All processing happens on Fango's AI backend — the only data sent is the receipt photo, and it is never stored after processing.
Fango: Free vs Pro
The free tier is genuinely useful for a small household or a trial period. Most active users upgrade to Pro for unlimited scans after a few weeks.
Does a Best Before App Actually Make a Difference?
The problem is real and significant. According to WRAP, UK households waste £14 billion of food every year — around £800 per family of four. Globally, UNEP estimates roughly one third of all food produced is lost or wasted. Much of this waste is driven by forgetting what's in the fridge until it has expired — and by misreading best-before vs use-by date labels (UK Food Standards Agency).
A best before app addresses this directly. Instead of relying on memory, you get a notification. Instead of opening the fridge and guessing what needs eating, you see a colour-coded list sorted by urgency. The behaviour change is small; the impact over a year is significant — both financially and environmentally.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free app to track best before dates?
Fango has the strongest free tier: track up to 5 products with 5 free AI receipt scans and push notifications — no account required. Available on iOS today (Android coming soon).
Does a best before app need an account?
Not all of them. Fango requires no account, no sign-up, and no email address. Download and start immediately. Your fridge data stays on your device.
Can a best before app scan receipts?
Yes — Fango does this with AI. Photograph your grocery receipt and the app identifies all products, assigns estimated expiry dates, and adds them to your fridge automatically. This is far faster than barcode scanning or manual entry.
Does a best before app work offline?
Fango works offline for everything except receipt scanning (which requires an AI call). Your product list, reminders, and notifications all work without an internet connection.