wAIste: A mobile application that helps with food waste reduction

To provide further context about the scale of the food waste problem, consider these statistics.

According to the reported estimates, approximately 931 million tons of food waste were generated in 2019. Of this:

• 61% originated from households
• 26% from food service
• 13% from retail.

Data from the FUSIONS EU report indicate that approximately 88 million tons of food waste are generated annually within the EU. This is equal to:

• 174 kg per person or
• 143 billion euros in economic loss or
• 170,000,000 tones of CO₂ emissions.

Per the report, households are the source of the majority of food waste, meaning that waste can be significantly reduced at an individual level. We believe that helping everyday consumers better manage their groceries is a great opportunity to implement meaningful change at scale.

Features of the wAIste application

wAIste uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities to assist users in reducing food waste and improving garbage sorting, making it easier for them to contribute to a more sustainable environment.

Expiry date monitoring

Our primary objective was to tackle the issue of food waste generated by expired products.

A lot of food is wasted due to spoilage. This can happen for many reasons, such as neglect or forgetfulness. To help solve this challenge, one of the key features of our application was to provide expiry date monitoring and notifications.

The user simply had to provide an image of the groceries they own. Then, the application automatically updates household product inventory and provides estimated expiry dates. This way, people can prioritize which ingredients to use the soonest.