To help reduce food waste at home, Google and Hellmann’s have launched a tool called Meal Reveal. Using their mobile phone, users simply have to access this platform, scan the ingredients in their fridge and Google’s artificial intelligence will recommend recipes.
To know what recipes to prepare with the food you have in your refrigerator to avoid food waste, Google and Hellmann’s have a tool called Meal Reveal. This is how you can use it:
1. Open https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/meal-reveal.html on your mobile phone. If you enter from your computer, you must scan a QR code on your phone that will take you to the same place.
2. Select ‘Start scanning’ or ‘Enter ingredients manually’. If you select the first option you will be able to record a video of your refrigerator or take photographs of the products you have in it. Google’s artificial intelligence will identify foods. If you choose the second alternative, you must write the ingredients yourself.
3. Select ‘Search recipes’ and wait a few seconds for the platform to show you preparations.
The Meal Reveal platform uses Google Cloud’s Vertex AI technology to identify ingredients in your fridge with high precision. Advanced tools such as Gemini Pro Vision and PaLM 2, in combination with Unilever AI validation, allow individual ingredients down to forgotten proteins to be detected and catalogued.
Vertex AI Vector Search and a proprietary Unilever algorithm search a database for recipesto encourage culinary creativity.
This innovative solution makes meal planning easier and reduces food waste by providing a clear view of what’s in your refrigerator.
Food waste is a significant global problem, involving throwing away food that is still edible.
Google notes that this is a “big problem,” as it not only involves resource loss but also considerable environmental impact. According to The Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP), every year UK households throw away 4.7 million tonnes of edible food.
Additionally, up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are related to the production and distribution of food that is not ultimately eaten.
Another alternative to reduce food waste with the help of technology is to use appliances equipped with artificial intelligence. An example is Samsung’s Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator.which incorporates a technology called AI Vision Inside.
This technology uses an intelligent internal camera capable of recognizing up to 33 types of foods and offers recipes based on those products. In cases where the refrigerator does not recognize a specific food, the user has the option to manually enter the product name.
One of the most useful features of this refrigerator is the real-time display of the interior of the refrigerator. This feature is especially valuable when you are at the supermarket and need to check which products you really need to buy.
In this way, the unnecessary purchase of food is avoided and the chances of it ending up being wasted are reduced.
Camila Segura, Marketing and Communications Manager of Home Appliances at Samsung Colombia, highlights that these functions are designed to “avoid waste.”
The technology applied, in addition to offering comfort and efficiency, also contributes significantly to environmental sustainability. By knowing exactly what is in the refrigerator, users can better plan their meals and reduce the number of foods that end up in the trash.
