Part 02 · Food, dates and storage · Getting food in

Capture your first shelf

Photograph everything at once, a full fridge, freezer or pantry, and correct anything wrong before you save. One shelf at a time works too, if you would rather start small.

Where this is in iWhisk

Capture, then Kitchen inventory

iWhisk builds everything else, the dinner suggestion, the grocery list, the use-first reminders, from what it knows is in your kitchen. One shelf is enough to start.

The Capture screen with three mode buttons across the top: Kitchen inventory, Grocery receipt, and Recipe source. Kitchen inventory is selected. Below it a framing panel reads Add food from your kitchen, with the note photograph a shelf, drawer, pantry area, or single item, we will identify what is there and estimate when it may need using, and two buttons: Scan kitchen area and Choose photo. — Screen 2.01a What step 1 looks like **Kitchen inventory** is already selected when you open Capture, so there is nothing to change. Scan kitchen area opens the camera. Choose photo takes one you have already got, which is the better route if you photographed the shelf earlier and put the food away.

1
Open CaptureThe raised button in the middle of the bar on a phone, or Add to iWhisk in the sidebar on a wider screen. Stay on Kitchen inventory.
2
Photograph as much as you'd likeA full fridge, freezer, or pantry in one photo is the fastest way in: iWhisk reads all of it, and you only fix what needs fixing. Rather ease in? One shelf, one drawer, or one section works just as well.
3
Get the light right, then shootStand so a window is to your side, not behind you. Shoot straight on so you can see the front of each package. No flash.
4
Review what it foundItems iWhisk is confident about are already ticked. Anything it is unsure about is not. Fix names and amounts now, while the food is in front of you.
5
Check the use-by datesEach date says where it came from. Change any of them. The format is YYYY-MM-DD.
6
Say where it lives, and saveFridge, freezer, cabinet or spice, or name your own. iWhisk offers to scan another location straight away.

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Take the drawer outNobody photographs well inside a fridge. Lift the drawer or tray onto the counter, photograph it there, put it back. Ten seconds, dramatically better result.

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If a scan doesn't finishOn rare occasions a scan can time out before it finishes processing, whatever size the photo. Wait a moment and try again. If it keeps happening, let us know at support@iwhisk.io so we can look into it.