Freshness Alert! A New Fridge Container Tag Signals the Food’s Freshness
A tech startup from Chicago launched their Smarterware system which turns an ordinary fridge into a smart one. The system shall help to cut wasting food and money by tracking the food inside the fridge before it spoils.
Header Picture © Ovie
Almost 50 percent of the food we buy and bring home are thrown away afterwards. Ovie, a tech startup from Chicago, now launched their Ovie Smarterware system that shall help to stop wasting food by tracking the food inside the fridge before it spoils. This system turns an ordinary fridge into a smart one that knows what’s in it and how fresh the product is. Furthermore, the integrated apps can send notifications about the food’s status and give recipe ideas, for example. To improve the user’s food tracking and consumption the system also sends a personalized recap every month to their smartphones.
Still Great But Don’t Wait – How the Container Tags Work
The product line consists of Smart Tags, 6-cup containers, clips, and universal connectors that attach to any container in a fridge. The Smart Tags are removable, waterproof and have a light ring that signals the state of the food. The light starts off on green, meaning it’s fresh and safe to eat, then turns yellow to show it’s still okay but should be eaten soon and turns red when it’s time to better throw it away. Additionally, the user can integrate Alexa and other smart home hubs, recipe apps, and grocery apps to keep tracking everything tagged. The app sends reminders to the user’s smartphone when the food is about to go bad and provides tips on how to eat it or provides them with recipe ideas which integrate other tagged items in the fridge. It even connects with grocery apps to allow the user to order missing ingredients to complete a recipe.
“People Don’t Want to Waste All of This Food – It Just Happens”
Ty Thompson, the co-founder and CEO of Ovie, explained, that we end up throwing away a large amount of food simply because we forget that we still have it. That’s why Ovie created a system that is very simple to use and brings a more mindful approach to food storage. With notifications sent to the phone, the system helps to know what’s still in the fridge and can be used. Monthly recaps celebrate wins, offer tips based on personal consumption trends, and share how, together with the rest of the Ovie network, they’re reducing food waste.
What an innovative idea to cut food waste!