Pantry Plant Chef turns fridge and pantry photos into plant-based dinner plans. This policy describes what the iOS app actually does on the current release. There is no account system, no advertising SDK and no analytics tracker in the binary we reviewed.
1. Who is responsible
Publisher of the app “Pantry Plant Chef”. Privacy and support contact: stocknote@tomatostem.studio.
2. What stays on your device
- Shelf photos from the camera or your photo library stay in the app sandbox. Image pixels are not uploaded for recipe coaching on this build.
- On-device OCR uses Apple Vision to read ingredient candidate strings from a photo. That text is reviewed on the “Review ingredients” screen before anything else happens.
- Pantry board, scans, recipe plans, cooking sessions and the AI-sharing toggle are stored locally (including a UserDefaults preference).
- Recipe cards you export are written to the Photos library only when you tap save.
3. What leaves your device — only after you allow cloud coaching
| Service | Data | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
DeepSeek (api.deepseek.com, People’s Republic of China) | A text prompt that lists the ingredient names you confirmed, plus any prior correction note you typed. No photo bytes or base64 images are attached in this release. | Draft a plant-based recipe title, steps and coaching notes. |
| Apple Speech Recognition | Short microphone buffers while you speak ingredient names. The app does not set on-device-only recognition, so Apple may process audio on Apple servers. The transcript is kept locally as text. | Hands-free pantry entry. |
MiniMax image and speech models are referenced in source stubs but do not open a network request on this build; empty local placeholders are returned instead. Turning off “Allow cloud coaching” in Settings stops the DeepSeek path immediately.
4. International transfers
DeepSeek processes prompts in China. If you live in a region with GDPR-style rules, the transfer relies on your explicit consent for that feature. Local-only use remains available if you decline.
5. Permissions
- Camera — photograph fridge or pantry shelves.
- Photo Library (read) — pick earlier shelf shots to compare before confirming ingredients.
- Photo Library (add) — save a finished recipe card.
- Microphone and Speech Recognition — dictate ingredient names while cooking.
6. Retention and deletion
Local items remain until you delete an ingredient, recipe plan or cooking session in the app, or uninstall the app. There is no single “erase everything” control and no bulk personal-data export beyond saving a recipe card to Photos. DeepSeek retention follows DeepSeek’s own policy for prompts it receives.
7. Your choices and rights
You can refuse or revoke cloud coaching at any time in Settings. Depending on your country you may also have rights of access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability or complaint to a supervisory authority. Because we do not operate an account backend for this app, most of your content exists only on your device.
8. Children
The app is intended for general audiences cooking plant-based meals; it is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent age in your country).
9. Nutrition disclaimer
Coach notes are culinary suggestions, not medical or dietary advice. Do not rely on them for allergies, nutrient therapy or clinical decisions.
10. Changes
When features change we update this page and the date above.