How we calculate money and CO2e saved

Every money and CO₂e figure in PantryAI is an estimate. This page sets out when the app counts a saving, how it works each figure out, where the data comes from and how certain the result is.

When a saving is counted

Only when you tap I Cooked This on a saved recipe, for example after cooking it step by step with the AI chef. The app matches the recipe's ingredients to your pantry and counts the items you used up.

Food you add, edit or delete in the pantry on its own is never counted.

Meal logged: 3 items rescued, £0.85 saved and 0.38 kg CO2e avoided

Carbon avoided

For each item you used up, the app works out the carbon you avoided with this formula:

CO₂e avoided (kg) = weight (kg) × GHG intensity (kg CO₂e per kg) × 0.45

Weight is the item's weight in kilograms. Where it comes from is explained below.
GHG intensity is the food's greenhouse gas intensity, in kilograms of CO₂e per kilogram of food, from Agribalyse.
0.45 is the share of rescued food that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration, as the in-app screen explains.

Where the carbon data comes from

Greenhouse gas intensities come from Agribalyse 3.1, published by ADEME in France. The app tries to match each item to Agribalyse in this order, and the match sets how confident the figure is:

1. Barcode match with a known weightHigh confidence
2. Food linked to an Agribalyse codeMedium confidence
3. Open Food Facts category mapped to AgribalyseMedium confidence
4. Name keyword matchLow confidence

Product details for barcode matches come from Open Food Facts.

For weight, the app uses the product's weight. If that isn't known, it uses the quantity you entered, and failing that, a typical pack weight for the food.

Money saved

Money saved uses a median retail price per kilogram for each food category, held in US dollars. The prices come from USDA Economic Research Service, FAO and Numbeo data for 2024 to 2025. Numbeo's prices are crowd-sourced: they are reported by the people who use the site.

The app converts the price to your currency with the European Central Bank's daily euro reference rates, cached for 24 hours.

How certain it is

All figures are estimates. Values marked "~" are less certain and rounded to the nearest 0.5. When a result rests on a low-confidence match, the app shows a "figures are estimated" notice.

Badges

There are 20 badges to earn as your cooks add up, in three tracks:

Money saved
From £5 up to £1,000
Carbon saved
From 1 kg up to 100 kg of CO2e
Cooks
From your first cook up to 100

Sources

Agribalyse (ADEME): carbon intensity data, version 3.1
Open Food Facts: product data and food categories
ECB euro reference rates: currency conversion
USDA Economic Research Service, FAO and Numbeo: retail food price data for 2024 to 2025

For practical ways to waste less, read how to reduce food waste at home.

Contains data from Open Food Facts, available under the Open Database License.

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