According to WRAP, the average UK household throws away around £1,000 worth of food every year — and most of it is perfectly edible. The most common reason is not carelessness: it's simply that food gets pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten until it's too late. A food expiry reminder app solves this directly — it tracks what you have and notifies you before anything expires.
Fango is a food expiry reminder app for iPhone and Android that goes one step further: instead of adding items manually, you photograph your grocery receipt and AI adds everything to your digital fridge automatically — with estimated expiry dates. You get a push notification 1–14 days before each item expires, with timing you control. This type of app is also called an expiry date tracker, a fridge tracker app, or a best before app.
- A food expiry reminder app tracks your fridge and notifies you before food expires
- Fango scans your receipt automatically — no manual item entry needed
- Set reminders 1–14 days in advance — you choose the timing for each product
- No account required — works immediately, all data on your device
Why manual tracking doesn't work
The idea of tracking expiry dates manually sounds reasonable — until you try it. After a weekly shop of 20–30 items, entering each one with a name and date takes 10–15 minutes. That's every week. In practice, most people do it twice and then stop.
Even when you do add items, checking them daily requires opening the app and scrolling through a list — which is easy to skip. By the time you remember, the item has already expired.
The only system that works long-term is one that requires minimal effort to maintain and actively reminds you — not one that requires you to remember to check it.
What a food expiry reminder app actually does
A food expiry reminder app does two things: it keeps a record of what's in your fridge with dates, and it sends you a push notification before something is about to expire. The notification arrives on your phone — just like a calendar reminder — with enough advance notice to actually use the food.
The best apps let you customise the advance notice window. Fango lets you set it anywhere from 1 to 14 days before the expiry date. For raw meat you might want a 1-day reminder; for yoghurt or cheese, 3–5 days gives you more time to work it into meals.
Scan your grocery receipt when you get home — AI identifies the products and adds them to your fridge with expiry dates. You get a push notification 1–14 days before anything expires. No sign-up, fridge data stays on your device.
Download Fango for free Get it on Google Play
How Fango's expiry reminders work
Most food expiry apps require you to add each item manually — which is why many people stop using them. Fango solves this with AI receipt scanning:
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Scan your grocery receipt with your phone camera. You do this once when you get home from the shop. The full receipt, including multiple pages, can be scanned in one go.
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AI identifies the products automatically. Fango reads the receipt and adds each food item to your digital fridge — with an estimated expiry date based on the product type.
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Review and adjust if needed. The app shows you all recognised items before saving. You can edit dates for items where the packaging shows a specific date.
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Receive push reminders before anything expires. Fango notifies you 1–14 days before each item's expiry date — you set the timing once and the app handles the rest.
How many days before expiry should you set the reminder?
The right advance notice depends on the food. Short-lived items need a quick heads-up; longer-lived ones give you more room to work them into meals. Here's a practical starting point for your reminder window:
Not sure how long something keeps? Our storage guides cover the details — for example, how long yoghurt lasts, how long chicken lasts in the fridge, and how long bread lasts. With Fango you set the reminder window once per item, and it applies automatically every time you scan that product — so you don't have to think about it again.
What to look for in a food expiry reminder app
Not all expiry reminder apps are equally practical. Here are the features that matter most:
Fango vs. other food expiry reminder apps
The main alternatives are BEEP, NoWaste and Fridgely. All send expiry notifications — the differences are in how you add items and what happens to your data.
| Feature | Fango | BEEP | NoWaste | Fridgely |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Push expiry reminders | ✓ 1–14 days | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI receipt scanning | ✓ | — | ~ unreliable | ~ basic |
| No account required | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Data stays on device | ✓ | cloud | cloud | cloud |
| Adjustable reminder timing | ✓ 1–14 days | limited | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free to try | ✓ 20 items, 5 free scans | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
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Why food expiry reminders reduce waste — and save money
The maths is straightforward. WRAP estimates that UK households waste around £1,000 per year per household. Most of that food was edible when it expired — it simply wasn't used in time. A push notification before the expiry date gives you the one thing you were missing: advance warning.
Even catching two or three items per week that would otherwise have been thrown away adds up to meaningful savings over a year. And the habit compounds: once you're used to getting reminders, you naturally start planning meals around what's about to expire first — which reduces waste further. Globally, UNEP reports approximately one third of all food produced is lost or wasted, with most household waste coming from forgotten items rather than overbuying.
The key is making the system as frictionless as possible. Scan your receipt when you get home, and Fango handles everything else — no daily check-ins, no manual date entry, just a push notification when you need it. Storing food at the right temperature also matters: the UK Food Standards Agency recommends 0–5°C for fridge storage, which combined with active expiry tracking gives you the longest possible safe window.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a food expiry reminder app?
A food expiry reminder app tracks the items in your fridge and sends you a push notification before they expire — typically 1–14 days in advance. This gives you time to use food before it goes off, rather than discovering it too late. Fango is a food expiry reminder app for iPhone and Android that also scans your grocery receipt automatically so you don't have to add items manually.
How far in advance does a food expiry reminder app notify you?
Most food expiry apps let you choose your own advance notice window. Fango allows you to set reminders 1–14 days before an item expires — so for meat you might set 1–2 days, while for longer-lived items like cheese or yoghurt you might prefer 3–5 days. You choose the setting that works for your shopping and cooking rhythm.
Does a food expiry reminder app require an account?
It depends on the app. Most apps (NoWaste, BEEP, Fridgely) require an account and store your data in the cloud. Fango is an exception: no sign-up or account is needed, and your fridge data is stored locally on your device. The app works immediately after installation.
How do I add food to an expiry reminder app without typing everything manually?
Fango's AI receipt scanner reads your grocery receipt and adds all products to your fridge automatically — including estimated expiry dates. You photograph the receipt when you get home from shopping, and the app does the rest. This takes under 30 seconds for a full shop, compared to 10–15 minutes of manual entry.
Which is the best food expiry reminder app for iPhone?
Fango stands out for its combination of AI receipt scanning, adjustable push reminders (1–14 days), and privacy-first design: no account required, all data on device. It's the fastest to set up and requires the least ongoing effort. Other options include BEEP (best for barcode scanning) and NoWaste (most features, but requires account).