Waste Not Software Keeps Track Of Food Expiration Dates

It needs a cleverly organized household to keep track of food expiration dates and food that needs to be bought. Some households use a board on the fridge, others use paper and most probably use their feeling when it comes to these things. A user request in the Donation Coder forum led to the interesting software program Waste Not which keeps track of food quantities and expiration days. The portable software program runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems and – obviously – requires some manual work to be effective.

The software program keeps track of five information per item in a simple table format. Users who work with it can add new items by adding a name, expiration date, owner, share and if it is in the fridge. The entries can easily be added from within the software program. It is also possible to edit the food list so that it can be selected easier from the drop down menu.

The food is color coded depending on its location and expiration date. Food in the fridge gets a blue color independently from its expiration date (that’s a flaw in my opinion). Expired food or soon to expire food is colored red, yellow is good for some days and green is good for a longer time.

The list can be exported to a csv file for further processing. It would be great if the user of the software could define the colors which probably would make more sense. Other options that might be nice could be an online interface to check what’s left to shop for specific items after work, school or other events outside the house.

Waste Not is a portable software program available from the developer’s website.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday September 15, 2009 -
Tags:food, food expiration, food tracker, portable software, waste not, windows software