Scanning Groceries into Your Pantry
The fastest way to stock your pantry is to scan your groceries as you unpack them. FourFork reads the barcode with your camera, figures out which ingredient the product is, and adds it to your pantry.
Starting a scan session
- Open the Pantry tab and tap Scan products.
- Allow camera access when your browser asks.
- Point the camera at a product's barcode. Recognized items are added to a running list with a small vibration — just keep scanning the next item.
When a product isn't recognized
If a barcode isn't in our catalog yet, FourFork looks it up in a public food-product database and shows you what it found. Pick which ingredient the product belongs under (we'll suggest matches), and it's added to your session. The product is also sent for review — our team verifies it, and once approved it becomes instantly recognizable for everyone. If nothing is found at all, you can attach the item using the regular ingredient search, or skip it.
Finishing up
Tap Done to review your list. Adjust quantities and units, then confirm — everything is added to your pantry at once. Scanning something already in your pantry increases its quantity instead of creating a duplicate.
Tips and requirements
- Scanning works with standard product barcodes (UPC and EAN).
- Your camera feed is processed on your device — no video is uploaded.
- A camera and a secure (https) connection are required. If your device has no camera or you decline permission, the manual add flow is always available.
- The same barcode scanned twice in one session is ignored, so double-scans are harmless.