PRE2023 3 Group6

Foodini

Group members

Name	Student number	Study	E-mail
Sem van Birgelen	1813862	Industrial Design	s.v.birgelen@student.tue.nl
Manka Huszár	1581368	Computer Science and Engineering	m.huszar@student.tue.nl
Aydan Bakhshi	1671189	Applied Physics	a.bakhshi@student.tue.nl
Yi Hang Cheung	1014298	Computer Science and Engineering	y.h.cheung@student.tue.nl
Bohao Ye	1809903	Computer Science and Engineering	b.ye1@student.tue.nl
Vlad Chibulcutean	1780980	Computer Science and Engineering	v.chibulcutean@student.tue.nl

Introduction

Problem Statement

Food waste can be defined as "Food appropriate for human consumption being discarded, whether after it is left to spoil or kept beyond its expiry date." Food waste is recognized as a serious threat to food security, the economy, and the environment. 37% percent of food is wasted in households in the US, and in the EU, households generate more than half of the total food waste (54%). The causes of food waste could be food expiration, overshopping, and often these relate to poor meal planning and insufficient food management skills. Solving the problem of food waste will help combat undernourishment and meet the increasing food demand across the world.

Objectives

• Create an app that suggests recipes based on the contents of the user's fridge;
• Investigate how technology can be used to combat food waste. More specifically:
  • How much food is wasted in households;
  • What are the main reasons for food waste;
  • How to prevent food waste;
  • What would be a convenient way for users to keep oversight of fridge contents;
  • What incentives could be used to motivate consumers to prevent food waste
  • How AI can assist in preventing food waste
  • Check other recipe suggesting apps / websites, what features would be useful to add / what's missing.

Users & Requirements

Users

Adults in households, possibly restaurants and grocery stores.

User requirements

• Easy to use platform to save food
• Recipe suggestions
• Reminders about expiry dates

App requirements

Basic features:

• Firebase account login
• Inventory:
  • Shopping list
  • Edit list
  • Expiry date (barcode)
• Recipe suggestions based on:
  • Inventory
  • Expiry dates
  • [Optional] Cuisine (Italian, Asian, Mexican, etc.)
  • [Optional] Preparation time

Extra features:

• Look at local supermarkets for ingredients about to expire and, if possible, include them in recipes against discounted price (Analogous to "To Good To Go");
• Scan the barcode of the product to add it to the list automatically.

Planning

Research team

• Sem
• Aydan
• Vlad

Development team

• Manka
• Yi Hang
• Bohao Ye

Underlined = deliverables

Week 1

Research

• Choose a subject - Everyone
• Research the problem - Everyone
• Find 25 articles and summarize (partly for now) – Sem, Aydan, Bohao

Development

• Implement sign up and sign in – Yi Hang

Week 2

Development

• Complete mock-up user interface designs ½ - Manka, Sem

• Start Page
• Login  
• Sign up

Research

• Investigate state-of-the-art apps, add to wiki ½ – Aydan, Vlad
• Survey questions - Aydan
• App requirements (MoSCoW) - Bohao

Week 3 – Complete the survey

Development

• Complete mock-up user interface designs 2/2 - by Wednesday – Manka, Sem

• Inventory page
• Recipe page

• XML for login, sign up and inventory – Manka
• App Logo - Manka
• Implement Inventory – Yi Hang

• Page for item entry
• Enter expiration date

Research

• Investigate state-of-the-art apps, add to wiki 2/2 - Aydan, Vlad
• Summary of survey, add to wiki - Aydan

Week 4

Development

• XML for recipe page – Manka
• Implement Recipe page – Bohao, Yi Hang
• Notifications – Bohao

Research  

• Put together contents for info page – Aydan, Vlad

Week 5 – First working version

Development

• Notifications – Bohao
• Information page – Manka

Week 6

Research

• Conduct user test – Everyone + 3rd party
• Collect and analyze user test results - Everyone

Week 7 – Final version

Development

• Add fixes to app according to user feedback – Development team

Week 8

• Create final presentation - Everyone
• Peer review - Everyone

Timesheet

Week 1

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 2

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 3

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 4

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 5

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 6

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 7

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Week 8

	Time (H)	Summary	Notes
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Total

	Time (H)
Yi Hang
Manka
Aydan
Bohao
Sem
Vlad

Literature study

Food waste matters - A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications

In recent years concerns regarding food waste have increased due to its environmental impact . Resource depletion and greenhouse gas emissions that food waste causes are a important reason for this. "Globally, nearly one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, equalling a total of 1.3. billion tonnes of food per year”. Food waste is also indirectly accompanied by other environmental impacts like: soil erosion, deforestation, water and air pollution as well as green house emmisions which occur during the food production process, also thik of transportation. In the food supply chain, households represent the largest food waste section. In summary, if food is wasted in households, all energy was in vain and the complementary environmental impacts are for nothing. A holistic food waste prevention has to go beyond putting the responsibility solely on the consumers, policy makers need to be commited as well. Food waste prevention has to become the more attractive option for households.

Learning from and designing after pandemics. CEASE: A design thinking approach to maintaining food consumer behaviour and achieving zero waste

According to this article, a CEASE (Community, Engagement, Actions, Sharability and Ecosystem) approach to the food waste problem would be beneficial. What this means is that the design to combat food waste should be: 1) Community based, it should emphasize with the user. This focuses on the emotional and social desires of a community, the goal is to highlight the value that are basis for emerging behaviour patterns. Secondly, Engagement, interacting with the users is important and they need a sense of empowerment. Thirdly, actions, this is the part where you ideate for solutions and come up with potential prototype. Shareability is about creating a prototype that can be shared. Lastly Eco-systems are tested in to predict long term results and possible problems.

Food Waste Prevention: a design intervention for Households

This is the report of an Industrial Design student from Delft who did a design project about food waste prevention in households. The article discovers the main traits of the wasters. For example, young adults mainly waste food because of their busy lifestyle while large households (4+ members) generally waste the most due to less consciousness in reusing leftovers into new meals. It also takes a look at already existing initiatives like: Eetmaatje, the fridge and freezer sticker, slim koken app, de verspillingsvrijeweek, and educational initiatives in general.  

The final design were the “Eetkaartjes”, a design that aimed to make leftovers more apperent, force a sense of responsibility on the user and have the fridge more organised.

Design an Intervention to Support Food Waste Prevention at Home

Another Design graduation project was that of by Fauza Karomatul Masyhuroh, also from the TU Delft. From user research, it was concluded that “In the current practice, people already display food. However, sometimes this makes the kitchen a bit messy, and some food is still discarded due to getting rotten. So they expect the food in a neat and pretty way and ease them organising older and newer food to prevent spillage.  

The final design that was created was Foodi, a storage system for fruits and partly vegetables. To slow down the riping process, different fruits were seperated to contain their Ethylene gasses.

Food Waste at Consumer Level

This source explores food waste at consumer level in depth. It tries to understand the consumer behaviour that causes food waste. The general conclusion this paper made was that . It concluded that household food waste depends on consumer food management which means: “planning, provisioning, storing, preparing, consuming, disposal, and the consumer decision process: planning, pre-acquisition, acquisition, preparation, consumption, disposition.”

Food Waste Management

This article gives an research-based overview of food-waste by looking at environmental, socia-economic, economic, social and ethical considerations. In the 4th part it also looks at practical innovative solutions like for example insect-based bioconversion or Gleaning. The first one being about how insects could consume waste while producing valuable resources. Gleaning however is a very old technique used to salvage crops from farms which would otherwise rot.  It also looks at assumptions made about consumers and how they relate to campaigns against food waste.

Over Orbisk

Orbisk is a start-up company that aims to make the global food system more sustainable. They want to use emerging technologies like Computer Vision and AI to automatically monitor all food that is thrown away on ingredient level. The sensors used would be a camera above the trash bin. These insights can then be used by for example restaurants to adjust their menu.

TODO Sem

Understanding Food Loss and Waste—Why are we losing and wasting food?

Definitions of food loss and food waste, quantification, causes of food loss and waste at different stages of the food supply chain.

Key points:

• Four main criteria affect food waste during the consumption stage: household size and composition, income, culture, and demographic factors;
• In addition to these four main factors, it has been widely confirmed in the literature that the individual attitudinal factor could also influence the FLW reduction.

A systematic literature review on food waste/loss prevention and minimization methods

• 1/3 of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption worldwide is either wasted or lost
• food loss and prevention methods can be an effective alternative for substantially reducing food waste through
  • food waste policies
  • programs
  • campaigns
  • changes in human behavior

A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States

TODO Yi Hang

Digital platforms: mapping the territory of new technologies to fight food waste

This article presents a comprehensive list of digital platforms for food waste management.

Using artificial intelligence to tackle food waste and enhance the circular economy: Maximising resource Efficiency and Minimising Environmental Impact: A review

The role of AI in preventing food waste, more specifically in smart monitoring, predictive analytics, smart inventory management, consumer awareness and education, donation and redistribution.

Food Waste Management: AI Driven Food Waste Technologies

This article is about how AI driven technologies can be utilized to combat food waste. It describes that current strategies exist out off combating food waste mainly in the supply chain and however these have their limitation. The article discusses how AI can be used to optimize supply chain management, predict demand and could reduce food spillage. Food Cowboy and Winnow are an example, they help commercial kitchens distribute the surplus of food and hereby prevent spillage. It also talks about the ethical and societal consequences AI in food waste combat could potentially have.

Smart strategies for household food waste management

The article presents an integrated system that aims at reducing household food waste. The system consists of a cloud database, a smart fridge, and a web application. The web application allows the user to interact with the smart system. The 4 main app features are:

• Ingredients management: Tracks food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry, the left quantity, and the date of purchase, opening, and/or expiration. Suggests actions depending on the expiry date on a daily basis. Adds depleted items to the shopping list.
• Proper food placement guiding: Leads the user in placing the products in the right fridge compartment to guarantee better storage conditions and increase the shelf life.
• Shopping list management: Remembers the products available at home. Also notifies the user of promotional items and adds them to the list of suggested products.
• Smart recipes suggestion: Suggests recipes by checking, filtering, and ordering ingredients available at home and closest to their expiration date.

Determinants of Food Waste from Household Food Consumption: A Case Study from Field Survey in Germany

A study conducted in Germany revealed that households in high-income countries contribute significantly to food loss and waste. On average, per capita food waste stands at 59.6 kg annually, with 49% of it being avoidable. Fruits and vegetables are the most wasted food items as per the compiled estimated composition of food waste. The study identified many reasons for food disposal, with 38% of the respondents citing lack of time to process food as the primary driving force. The second most common reason was that people cook more food than required, leading to leftovers being disposed of.

Household food waste: Attitudes, barriers and motivations

This study delves into people's attitudes towards food waste, examining the obstacles that hinder efforts to reduce it and the underlying factors that cause wastage. The key findings reveal that "Lack of environmental awareness" and "Exemption from responsibility" due to bulk and near-to-expiry sales are major contributors. Furthermore, it has been observed that guilt is a powerful tool in curbing food waste, as it encourages individuals to provide only the necessary amount of food for themselves or their loved ones.

To address these issues, several recommendations have been made. These include educational campaigns in collaboration with educational institutions and workplaces to inform the public about the environmental and socio-economic impacts of food waste. Additionally, practical measures such as providing free waste sorting bins to households, implementing financial incentives or penalties like the "Pay-As-You-Throw" system, and strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks are suggested. These approaches have been proven effective in various countries.

Preventing wasted food at home

benefits of saving food:

• save money by buying only what you actually need and consume
• reduce environmental and climate footprint
  • wasted food = wasted services like: transport, processing, preparing, storing etc.

ways to prevent food waste:

• Keep list of meals and their ingredients that your household already enjoys → shop for meals that are most likely to be consumed
• Look in your refrigerator to avoid buying food you already have
• Make a list each week of what needs to be used up and plan upcoming meals around it.
• Plan your meals for the week before you go shopping and buy only the things needed for those meals.
• Take into consideration how many days you will eat out vs eat at home and think about eating leftovers before you shop
• Include quantities on your shopping list noting how many meals you’ll make with each item to avoid overbuying. For example: “salad greens - enough for two lunches”
• Buying in large quantities (e.g., buy one get one free deals/discount deals) only saves money if you use all the food before it spoils
• Purchase imperfect produce or upcycled products. Imperfect produce may have physical imperfections but is just as safe and nutritious and can sometimes be found at discounted prices. Upcycled products are made from ingredients that might have otherwise gone to waste

Storage tips

• Properly store fruits and vegetables for maximum freshness
  • Most veggies should go in the high humidity drawer of the fridge
  • Most fruits should go in the low humidity drawer of the fridge
  • Some fruits (such as bananas, apples, pears, stone fruits, and avocados) release ethylene gas as they ripen, making other nearby produce ripen, and potentially spoil, faster. Store these away from other vegetables and fruits.
  • Some vegetables, such as potatoes, eggplant, winter squash, onions, and garlic, should be stored in a cool, dry, dark, and well-ventilated place

• Make sure you are properly storing food in your refrigerator.
  • refrigerator door is the warmest part of the fridge → store condiments there, but it is not recommended to store milk or eggs in the door
  • The lower shelves are the coldest part of the fridge. Store meat, poultry, and fish here.
• Store grains in airtight containers and label containers with contents and the dates.
• Befriend your freezer and visit it often. Freeze food such as bread, sliced fruit, meat, or leftovers that you know won’t be eaten in time. Label with the contents and dates.

Cooking and preparation tips

• Produce that is past its prime, as well as odds and ends of ingredients and leftovers, may still be fine for cooking. Repurpose these ingredients in soups, casseroles, stir fries, frittatas, sauces, baked goods, pancakes, or smoothies
• Learn the difference between “sell-by,” “use-by,” “best-by,” and expiration dates.

Household Food Waste: The Meaning of Product’s Attributes and Food-Related Lifestyle
product attributes that contribute to waste:

• meat, seafood, fruits and vegetables are wasted the most because they are fresh products
• visually non appealing foods are wasted a lot, e.g, imperfect fruit

consumer related determinants of food waste include

• time for food related activities
• cooking skills
• knowledge and awareness

housholds' inability to estimate their own consumption is a major contributor to food waste

3 consumer clusters were found in the study

1. consumers who are against wasting products with favorable taste or healthy products → mostly women and people with the highest income
2. consumers who are againts wasting food that is convenient/easy to prepare → mostly students
3. consumers who have no food wasing morale and who are thus the most wasteful → mostly people with full time jobs