Patent ID: 6513017
Filing Date: 2003-01-28
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A method for household grocery management, comprising:maintaining a current grocery inventory for a household using a bar code scanner to scan new and used grocery items; comparing the current grocery inventory to a list of desired groceries; determining shortages based upon comparing the current grocery inventory to the list of desired groceries; generating a replenishment list in response to the determined shortages; sending the replenishment list to a grocery clearing house across a communications network, the grocery clearing house servicing a plurality of grocery stores; storing a plurality of recipes which each include at least one ingredient; and receiving a request to initiate automatic meal analysis, wherein the meal analysis includes the steps of: comparing the grocery inventory to the ingredients of the stored recipes; suggesting meals in response to the comparing step, wherein the suggested meals are based on selected said recipes; identifying ingredients from the selected recipes which are absent from the grocery inventory; and adding the absent ingredients to the replenishment list.