Best before vs. use by — what is the difference?
These two labels are often confused but mean very different things:
- Best before — quality guarantee, not a safety cutoff. Food is usually fine for days or weeks after this date. Bread, pasta, tinned goods, and frozen items all use best-before dates.
- Use by — a safety deadline. Meat, fish, and dairy carry use-by dates. Do not eat food past its use-by date even if it looks and smells fine.
Tracking both types stops you throwing away perfectly good food unnecessarily, and reminds you to use things that genuinely need eating soon.
Why most people do not track expiry dates
The honest answer is that it has always been too much effort. Writing dates on a whiteboard or in a spreadsheet is tedious to maintain. Things get bought, shuffled to the back of a shelf, and forgotten.
Scanning a label with your phone camera takes two seconds. If the app then shows you a clear list of what is expiring this week, the effort is low enough that people actually stick with it.
How to set up pantry tracking on Android
ShelfTrack (free on Google Play, Pro unlocks expiry tracking) works like this:
- After unpacking shopping — go to the Stock tab and add each item. Scan the barcode to fill in the product name, then scan or type the best-before date.
- The app shows a "Going off soon" section — items expiring within three days appear at the top so you know to prioritise them.
- Expired items get their own section — separate from soon-expiring items, so you can see at a glance what to check or discard.
- Remove items when you use them — keeps your pantry list accurate without any extra effort.
What to track and what to skip
You do not need to track every tin of chickpeas. Focus on:
- Dairy: milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter
- Meat and fish (fresh and defrosted)
- Fresh produce that goes off quickly: berries, leafy greens, herbs
- Anything you bought on promotion and have more of than usual
- Leftovers — often forgotten until they are definitely past saving
Long-life items like pasta, rice, and tinned goods are worth adding once so you know what you have, but their dates rarely matter in practice.
Scanning expiry labels vs. typing dates
ShelfTrack can read best-before date labels directly using your camera. Point the camera at the date printed on the packaging, capture it, and the date is saved automatically. This is faster than typing and works on most standard date formats.
If the date is in an awkward position or format, you can also type it or pick from a quick-select (today, tomorrow, one week, two weeks).
Connecting pantry to your shopping list
The real value of a pantry tracker is the link to your grocery list. When you know your milk expires on Wednesday, you add milk to this week's list. When you know you have three tins of tomatoes, you do not buy more.
ShelfTrack keeps your shopping list and pantry in the same app so you can check what is at home before you add something to the list — without switching between tools.
Start tracking expiry dates today
ShelfTrack is free on Android. The kitchen and expiry tracking features are available with Pro — try the free version first to see if it fits your routine.
Download ShelfTrack on Google Play