Frequently asked questions about our food waste application

With the free plan, you get access to everything that makes this a powerful food waste application:

1. Weekly meal planning with automated grocery list.

2. Shared grocery lists and household syncing.

3. Reminders before food expires.

4. Real-time impact tracking (money + CO₂ saved).

5. Storage tips and food rescue suggestions.

6. Unlimited recipes searches on the web.

7. 3 fridge scans, and 5 recipe imports from any source to test the magic.

When you’re ready for more, upgrade to unlock unlimited scans, imports, and premium features.

We get it, it’s hard to justify paying for something when there are free options out there. That’s why OH, a potato! gives you a free version with real value: you can try out our premium features before committing.

This food waste application gives you full access to meal planning, shared grocery lists, household syncing, expiry reminders, and your live savings dashboard, all for free.

You’ll also get:

1. 3 fridge scans.

2. 5 recipe imports from anywhere (TikTok, screenshots, Notes… you name it).

No ads, no selling your data. Just a smarter way to cook, save money, and cut waste. Upgrade when you’re ready to unlock unlimited everything.

Yep. You get full access to all features for 7 days. No strings. No guilt. Just pure planning joy.

You can go monthly or yearly, whatever suits your fridge (and your wallet). Cancel anytime, no hard feelings.

Yes! You can plan together, shop smarter, and finally stop texting “Did you get onions?”

Just go to the Impact tab in the bottom navigation bar > tap Create Household > and invite your partner, roommate, or food co-conspirator.

Everyone sees the same plan, grocery list, and saved recipes. Easy, synced, and actually helpful.

Household sharing uses iCloud, so make sure it’s enabled. If you’ve turned it off, you can re-enable it by going to your device’s Settings > iCloud > and toggling iCloud Drive back on for OH, a potato!

Tap the scan icon on your Fridge screen (next to the navigation bar), it works for both your fridge and grocery receipts. Point your camera at your fridge, pantry, or receipt and snap any photos. Select up to 4, then tap Next.

Potato uses a bit of AI magic to spot the ingredients and save them to your virtual fridge. From there, you’ll get reminders before things expire, recipes to use them up, and tips to preserve what you can’t cook yet.

We don’t do pre-loaded, one-size-fits-none recipes. Instead, you bring the recipes you like: save ones from cookbooks, websites, social media, screenshots, or even plain ol’ text. Or browse the web inside the app and build your own collection. That way, your meal plan fits your taste, not someone else’s weird kale obsession.

Add a recipe to your meal plan, and we’ll show you which ingredients you’re missing. You can quickly uncheck anything you already have (even if it’s not in your virtual fridge yet, hello, salt and olive oil). Only the stuff you actually need ends up on your grocery list. You can also add anything manually, because life is unpredictable and so is the snack aisle.

Definitely. You can save recipes from pretty much anywhere: import your recipes, or search the web inside the app. Tap the little heart icon to favorite them. No more digging through tabs or group chats for “that one pasta thing.”

Your streak represents the number of weeks in a row you’ve created a meal plan with OH, a potato! Tip: Meal planning reminders and home screen widgets can be a great help for remembering to meal plan every week.

In Settings > Notifications you can turn on meal planning reminders and set the time that will work best for you.

Tap & Hold anywhere on your Home Screen.

Tap “Edit” on the top left.

Then choose “Add widget”.

Search for “OH, a potato” and add the widget.

The Potato Activity Log is where important updates and helpful suggestions show up, all based on your recent activity. From expiring ingredients to cooked meals, streaks, and impact milestones, Potato tracks it and prompts you to confirm or take action.

This helps Potato learn your habits, improve recommendations, and surface better tips, whether it's seasonal produce, ingredient-saving hacks, or last-minute rescue ideas.

It’s not just reminders. It’s a personalized feed that makes wasting less easier (and occasionally, funnier).

By weekly meal planning, you not only maintain your streak but also help Potato grow from baby to adult and unlock new potato themes. Once you unlock new themes, you can choose them as your default Potato.

Sometimes you need a break! A streak freeze lets you maintain your streak when you forget to meal plan for a week. You can earn streak freezes by meal planning weekly. You can check on the Potato calendar when you are unlocking a special reward. If you miss a week and you have a streak freeze, we apply it automatically to maintain your streak.

You earn free invites by meal planning regularly. You can check on the Potato calendar when you are unlocking a special reward. You can find your free codes in the profile section under Rewards by clicking on "Free Invites". You can copy the codes, share them with your friends and gift them 1-month free to use OH, a potato! Each code is unique and can be redeemed only once.

Yes. You don’t need to be a food influencer or even enjoy cooking that much. We’re here to make meal planning simpler, smoother, and way less annoying. Cooking Mode walks you through steps one at a time: no chaos, no jargon, just dinner (or lunch, or toast-with-a-dream).

Don’t worry. We start with what you already have and help you shop for just the gaps. Planning this way helps cut down on food waste, saves money, and avoids midweek grocery runs. Bonus: if you’ve got leftover ingredients after cooking, you can reuse them in next week’s plan. Efficiency and fewer mystery herbs going bad in the drawer.

Every time you cook with what you already have, Potato counts that as food not wasted, and calculates the impact based on ingredient-level data. But it works both ways: if you let something expire, that’s tracked as waste too.

For CO₂, Potato uses life cycle assessment data from sources like FAO, ADEME, and WRAP, paired with food category averages.

For € savings, it estimates the retail value of each ingredient used, and also factors in how much you’re saving by cooking at home instead of ordering takeaway, or dining out.

When you enable location, both CO₂ and € estimates become more accurate. Potato adjusts for regional grocery prices and local food production emissions, giving you a clearer, more personal view of your impact.

The more you use the app, the smarter the estimates get. Potato learns your habits, pricing context, and which ingredients you tend to waste, making your personal impact dashboard more accurate over time.

Potato compares your household’s food waste to the global average based on per-person data. On average, households waste 79 kg of food per person per year, generating around 0.6 to 0.9 tons of CO₂e annually, that’s roughly 250–270 kg of food waste for the average household of 3.2–3.4 people.

Using your activity in the app, like meals cooked and ingredients logged as wasted, Potato calculates your estimated food waste and shows how it stacks up against that global baseline.

Sources: UNEP Food Waste Index 2024, Statista, FAO/UNEP, World Bank/UN population data.

Potato uses official food safety guidelines and typical shelf life data to estimate expiry dates. These are based on regional standards and storage best practices from sources like:

1. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority).

2. USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).

3. FSA (Food Standards Agency – UK).

4. BVL (German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety).

5. FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand).

If your label says otherwise, or you know an ingredient will last longer or spoil faster, you can always edit the date manually in your virtual fridge.

Location access allows Potato to plan more intelligently and personalize your experience. When enabled, Potato can:

1. Suggest seasonal recipes based on what’s actually in season in your region.

2. Provide more accurate € savings by factoring in local grocery prices.

3. Improve CO₂ tracking using region-specific emissions data.

It’s completely optional, but without it, recipe suggestions, savings estimates, and impact stats may be less accurate.

Instagram, Facebook and YouTube may sometimes block us from saving your recipe in the app. Unfortunately we can't control when that happens and advise you to manually copy paste the information you wish to save or try the next day.