Guide contents
Start here
On your first run, PLUed asks one question: do you work a register, or are you shopping? Cashiers then get one setup page: pick a region, say how much produce you have rung, and import a Store Pack if you have one. Shoppers go straight in. You can change your region and your view later in Settings, or replay the setup from there. If your trainer gave you a QR code, link, or .plupack file, import it now. If not, jump straight into Levels (the Most Common journey).
Best first session: open Levels, study Level 1, then play a short round of The Belt. You do not need to set up an account.
The home screen is your market. Tracks hold chapters, chapters hold produce concepts, and your progress fills in as you learn. The continue card takes you back to the next useful step.
Home: Today, your store, Levels, Store Sections, and Recipe Sets
Home is one scroll of rows that swipe sideways, with today's PLUzzle pinned at the top. Today comes first: Continue (your place in Levels), Scan a sticker, and Shopping Trip. The Nutrition explorer card sits right under it. Your store is next: one card per store whose pack you have imported, titled with the store's name and wearing its logo, with its own practice cards by aisle once the pack is big enough. A store with a wide logo gets a wider card with the logo across the top. Before any pack is in, that slot is a single Add a Store Pack button. Levels (the Most Common journey) gives you a sane order: Level 1 through Level 10, starting with produce that shows up constantly. Store Sections are 21 plain, retail-aisle sections (Apples & Pears, Citrus, Root Vegetables, and so on) that cover every concept in the app, so you can find an item the way you'd find it on a store floor. Recipe Sets are 14 themed collections for practicing the produce that shows up together: Guacamole, Salsa & Pico, Taco & Fajita Night, Smoothie & Juice, and more.
Open a track
Levels is the right place for nearly every new cashier.
Pick the next level, section, or set
Review the concepts and their codes before you play.
Build mastery
Practice, flashcards, and game sessions all feed the same learning record.
Level 1 is free. The rest unlocks with one in-app purchase. The Library and concept cards remain open for browsing.
In the Library, a mode row above search switches between All (most-common items first), Sections, Recipes, and Nutrition (most nutritious first), each with its own filter chips and a launch bar for Flashcards, Practice, or Quick Play on whatever you're currently viewing. Type a full PLU in search and that item opens by itself. The Select button at the top picks a group of cards to study, compare, or save. If your phone holds two or more stores' packs, each store gets its own chip beside My Store, and each store item's card says which store it belongs to.
The Belt
The Belt puts produce on a moving checkout lane. Type the PLU before time runs out. It is where recognition becomes the quick, no-pause recall you need at a register.
When you know it
Enter the digits and submit. Correct answers keep the session moving. Faster, clean answers are stronger evidence that the code is sticking.
When you need help
Narrows the field with similar produce. You still supply the item and code.
Shows the produce name. You still recall and type the PLU.
Shows the answer. The session treats that as a miss.
The item is recorded as needing more work and comes back sooner.
Reveal-retype rule: seeing the answer does not skip the item. Type the revealed code correctly before the belt continues. That last retrieval matters.
Complete a game session to count the day toward your practice streak.
Speed stats: finish 10+ items at 80% or better accuracy and your session summary shows your items-per-minute, with a personal-best chip when you set a new one.
Smarter coaching: mix up two similar codes (like the wrong size of the same avocado) and PLUed notices. Expect a quick side-by-side comparison card later, and the two codes may resurface near each other so they stop blurring together.
PLUzzle Daily
A new produce puzzle every day, free forever. A banner pinned at the top of Home, right under the header, shows today's puzzle number and your status: an invite to play if you haven't yet, or your result and current streak if you have.
You get six guesses to find the day's PLU code. After each guess, colored squares tell you how close you were: green for the right digit in the right spot, yellow for the right digit in the wrong spot, black for a digit that isn't in the code at all. It's the same item for everyone that day, so it's a good one to compare with coworkers.
Everyone's results, once enough people have played: the result screen also shows a simple bar chart of how the wider PLUzzle community guessed that day, with your own result highlighted, once a puzzle has enough finishers. Below that threshold you'll just see a quiet placeholder line instead of a chart; either way your own result and streak are unaffected.
Flashcards
Flashcards are for clean, focused recall. Look at the picture and prompt, type the code, then rate the review honestly. The scheduling system uses your history to bring weak codes back sooner and let strong codes wait longer.
Your full available deck for the selected scope.
Only codes you have explicitly kept in your study set.
Codes your answer history says need more attention.
Rate ten cards in one day to count that day toward your streak.
Do not protect your score by rating a shaky answer as easy. Honest ratings make the next session shorter and more useful.
Your entry always stays visible: if a code comes back wrong, the card keeps showing exactly what you typed alongside the correct code. Never swapped out or hidden, so you can see precisely what you missed.
Concept cards and stars
A concept card groups one kind of produce with all of its useful codes. Hass avocado can have different codes by size; apples can split by variety and size; some items have regional differences. The card keeps those relationships together.
Each code has a star. Leave a code starred if your store carries it. Turn the star off if your store does not. Starred filters and mastery calculations can then focus on the wall you actually ring.
Store Pack codes are already store-specific. They appear with their own source and feed your store's own tile on Home after import.
One code at a time: a concept with several sizes or regions starts you on just its most common code. The rest show as a LATER tag on the card and a ghosted chip on the flashcard, and unlock automatically once you've mastered the first one.
Region chips and rare status chips: the catalog is verified against the live official IFPS database. Codes that only apply to one growing region (East/Central vs West, think East-grown navels vs West-grown) carry a region chip, and setting your region in Settings shows you the codes your store actually rings. In the rare case a code is genuinely retired or restricted from US/Canada use, it shows a Retired or Non-US chip. Those are visible for reference but never quizzed (and if your store still uses one, starring it adds it back to your training). Every code is scored on its own, entering a sibling code is a miss, with a coaching note.
Every card also carries one rule instead of per-code data: Organic = 9 + PLU.
Scan a sticker
Tap the camera button at the right edge of Library search, or Scan a sticker on Home, and point the camera at a PLU sticker. There is no shutter button: when PLUed reads the code, that item's page opens and names the code you scanned. An organic sticker (a 9 in front of the code) opens the same produce.
Hold the sticker 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm) from the camera. Closer is not better: a camera cannot focus on something a couple of inches away.
After the first read, the line under the frame says "Read 4011. Hold steady." The item opens when the next look reads the same code, so one blurry look cannot open the wrong item.
After about six seconds with nothing read, the scanner says so and keeps trying. Move the sticker back to a hand's length, or tap Type it instead.
The scanner read a code PLUed does not carry, often a store's own number. A cashier gets a button under that line that opens Add Store Code with the code filled in.
An honest note: small print needs a camera that can focus. Phones do well. Some tablets have a fixed-focus camera that reads large print only; on those, typing the code is faster. Everything happens on your device, and pictures are never uploaded.
Nutrition and the Density Score
Produce in PLUed carries a Density Score from 0 to 99: how nutrient-rich it is compared with other produce. Each score lands in a band (Powerhouse, Strong, Everyday, or Treat), and a lower score never means a food is bad. Tap a score for the breakdown and the nutrition facts. A few items carry no score: decorations and wrapper leaves that are not eaten, and a few with no reliable nutrition data. They say "No Density Score" and never show a zero.
The Nutrition explorer puts the scores to work. Open it from Home, from the Library's Nutrition mode, or with Compare on any item's page.
The most nutritious produce, in order. Narrow it to fruit, vegetables, a Store Section, a Recipe Set, or your store's list.
Two to four items side by side: score, band, and eighteen nutrients as % Daily Value per serving. From version 1.2.3 every nutrient has a value, and the item's nutrition facts name the source of any value that is not a USDA lab measurement.
Add items and see what the meal adds up to, weighted by serving size, with calories. Make a salad deals a plate for you, and Save plate keeps it.
The Density Score and all three tools never sit behind the unlock, and they work with no signal.
The methodology page shows how the score is calculated.
The shopper view
PLUed has a view for shoppers. Pick I'm shopping at first launch, or tap Switch to shopper view at the top of Home at any time. The same switch is in Settings under Using PLUed as. Home then leads with Scan and Search the Library, the Nutrition explorer, your store's list if a store shared one, and the most nutritious produce. An item's page shows nutrition first and its codes after.
Looking is free: the scanner, typing a code or a name, every Density Score, all three nutrition tools, PLUzzle, and browsing a store's list. To go back, tap Switch to cashier view. Everything you have learned stays.
Set your region
Some produce codes differ by region. In Settings, choose East / Central, West, or show all. PLUed applies that choice across concepts, study decks, and games so you are not drilling the wrong regional duplicate.
If your trainer is not sure, use show all until your store confirms. You can change the setting at any time without losing progress.
Language
PLUed is fully available in Spanish (es-US): every screen, all 1,116 produce names, concepts, and coaching notes. In Settings, choose Español (beta) to switch instantly, no restart required.
Why "beta"? The Spanish stays labeled beta until a bilingual tester using it day to day confirms it. A new phone set to Spanish opens PLUed in Spanish, and the first-run welcome has an EN / ES switch too.
Streaks and the freeze
A practice day counts when you complete a game session or rate at least ten flashcards. One active day starts a streak. Another active day on the next calendar day extends it.
- After seven active days, you earn one streak freeze if your freeze bank is empty.
- You can hold one freeze at a time.
- If you miss one day while you have a freeze, PLUed uses it automatically.
- A second missed day breaks the streak if no new freeze is available.
The streak is a nudge, not the job. A calm ten-minute session is enough.
Light, dark, or automatic
Open Settings and choose System, Light, or Dark. System follows your phone. Your learning data and appearance choice stay on the device.
Get your store's pack
A Store Pack is your location's own training layer: codes, named practice lists, and item graphics your produce manager picked from PLUed's own catalog. Your store shares it as a link, a QR code, or a .plupack file.
The fast way
Open the link on your phone, or scan the QR with your phone's camera. With PLUed installed, PLUed opens and imports the pack. It then says Store Pack imported, with your store's name.
From inside the app
Open Library, then Import Pack
The import screen takes all three ways a pack can arrive.
Scan, paste, or open
Tap Scan QR, or paste the link and tap Import, or tap Open .plupack File.
See your store's name
PLUed imports the pack and says Store Pack imported, with your store's name. Tap OK. The pack becomes your store's own tile on Home.
No Import Pack in your Library? You are in shopper view. On Home tap Add your store, or tap Switch to cashier view at the top of Home.
What happens next
- Your store gets its own card on Home, titled with the store's name and wearing its logo when it has one. You get one card per store if you work at more than one.
- The store's items join the Library under My Store, each with a STORE badge. With two or more stores, each store has its own chip.
- Any practice lists your trainer created (Front Table, Organic Wall, New Hire Week One) arrive as named practice collections under your store's name, each one launchable as its own study or practice session.
- When your store shares the pack again, the link stays the same and the Import screen shows an "Update available" tap that brings in the new version.
- A logo your store adds later shows up by itself, usually the next time you open the app and within a day.
Looking at your store's list is free. Practicing it is part of full access: your own one-time unlock, or your store's code.
Building the pack for your store? The trainer guide has the steps: type your codes, upload a spreadsheet, or change a pack later.
Remove a pack, or one code
Open Settings, then My Store Data. Remove one code, one whole store, or everything you added. Your learning history is kept, and a code you remove from a pack stays gone when the pack updates.
Report a pack
If a pack is not your store's, or holds something that should not be there, tap the flag beside it on the Import Store Pack screen and pick a reason. You can also email [email protected].
Where the graphics come from
Codes, practice lists, and graphics all come through however you import: QR, link, or .plupack file. Every graphic is one of PLUed's own catalog images. A QR code or link opens the pack from PLUed, so your phone needs a connection the first time; a .plupack file imports without one. PLUed checks every shared pack before its link appears.
Free and full access
You can start without paying. Level 1 (The Daily Dozen), PLUzzle, the sticker scanner, every Density Score, and the Nutrition explorer are free, and you can browse the Library, concept cards, and your store's list. The full journey, every Store Section and Recipe Set, and the My Store training track unlock with a one-time in-app purchase. There is no subscription.
Have a store code? The unlock screen asks Did your store give you a code? Type it there once.
- Where it is. At first launch, the setup page has I have a store code. Later, tap any locked level, or open Settings and under Market access tap Unlock everything. Then tap Did your store give you a code?
- What to do. Type the store code, or tap Scan the poster and point the camera at your store's poster. Tap Unlock.
- iPhone and iPad. One more sheet opens, from Apple. Enter the same store code there to finish. On Android and Fire tablets the first step is all.
- "All of your store's seats are in use." Every seat on your store's plan is taken. Tell your manager. From PLUed 1.2.2, a Tell your manager button under that message opens your phone's share options with a short note. The store adds seats from its store page: steps for the store.
The store code and your store's pack are two separate things. The store code unlocks PLUed. The pack adds your store's own codes. More about store codes.
If you already bought it with the same store account, open Settings and choose Restore purchases.
Try it in a browser
The web demo is PLUed 1.2 running in your browser: the new look, Level 1, the Library to browse, the Nutrition explorer, and today's PLUzzle, the same daily puzzle as the app. plued.app/play opens the puzzle and plued.app/browse opens the Library. A Get the app button is there when you want the rest.
What a browser cannot do: there is no camera scanner, importing a store's pack from its link or QR needs the app, and your progress stays in that browser. It does not move to your phone.