PRE2023 3 Group6

Virtual Fridge

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

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.

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.

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.

Literature study

Schanes, K., Dobernig, K., & Gözet, B. (2018). Food waste matters - A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications. Journal Of Cleaner Production, 182, 978–991. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.030

Ishangulyyev, R., Kim, S., & Lee, S. H. (2019). Understanding Food Loss and Waste—Why are we losing and wasting food? Foods, 8(8), 297. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8080297

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

Moraes, N. V., Lermen, F. H., & Echeveste, M. E. S. (2021). A systematic literature review on food waste/loss prevention and minimization methods. Journal of Environmental Management, 286, 112268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112268

Muth, M. K., Birney, C., Cuéllar, A., Finn, S. M., Freeman, M., Galloway, J. N., Gee, I. M., Gephart, J. A., Jones, K., Low, L., Meyer, E., Read, Q. D., Smith, T. A., Weitz, K., & Zoubek, S. (2019). A systems approach to assessing environmental and economic effects of food loss and waste interventions in the United States. Science of the Total Environment, 685, 1240–1254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.230

Cane, M., & Parra, C. (2020). Digital platforms: mapping the territory of new technologies to fight food waste. British Food Journal, 122(5), 1647–1669. https://doi.org/10.1108/bfj-06-2019-0391

Onyeaka, H., Tamasiga, P., Nwauzoma, U. M., Miri, T., Juliet, U. C., Nwaiwu, O., & Akinsemolu, A. A. (2023). Using artificial intelligence to tackle food waste and enhance the circular economy: Maximising resource Efficiency and Minimising Environmental Impact: A review. Sustainability, 15(13), 10482. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310482

• 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.

https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2023/01/food-waste-management-ai-driven-food-waste-technologies/

Cappelletti, F., Papetti, A., Rossi, M., & Germani, M. (2022). Smart strategies for household food waste management. Procedia Computer Science, 200, 887–895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.01.286