Is technology the solution to domestic food waste?

Do you know what food you have in your kitchen right now? Chances are you don’t and that lack of knowledge is a major contributor to Australia’s $6 billion annual food waste tally. So, could technology be the solution?

A researcher from QUT has tested the use of technology to change consumer behaviour and reduce domestic food waste.

Dr Geremy Farr-Wharton, from the Urban Informatics Research Lab in the QUT School of Design, said there are three main reasons why household food ends up in the bin.

“It is because of a lack of food supply knowledge (what’s in my kitchen), food location knowledge (what’s in my fridge and pantry) and level of food literacy (how to use it and how to judge its edibility).”

Dr Farr-Wharton conducted a series of in-home experiments to test three design interventions — the Colour Code Project, FridgeCam and EatChaFood — all aimed to reduce food waste by improving food supply and location knowledge and food literacy.

He said the Colour Code Project used different colour mats inside the fridge to organise food types and a chart on the door to indicate where food was located.

“In most households there is usually only one or two food buyers, so if you don’t know an apple was bought and can’t see it, then you are unlikely to eat it.

“Improving food location knowledge resulted in the most significant reduction in food waste,” he said.

FridgeCam was a collaboration between QUT and the Technical University of Vienna, which targeted food supply knowledge by providing people with a camera positioned within the fridge that took photos of their fridge interior and uploaded them to a website.

“The idea is that if you are out shopping and can’t remember if you need milk or butter, you just open the website on your smartphone to check your fridge’s inventory,” he said.

EatChaFood is a mobile app prototype that provides an interior view of the fridge, as well as a record of the food inside. It also offers meal suggestions based on food supply and food expiry.

Dr Farr-Wharton said the outcomes of the interventions revealed that improving food supply and location knowledge, as well as educating people in how to use their food and how to judge its edibility, helped further reduce domestic food waste.

“With our design research, we are essentially ‘connecting’ people with their food — reducing the gap between food producers and consumers,” he said.

“While we saw a reduction in the amount of food tossed out as a result of the interventions, the study did find that people’s biggest limitation was around a lack of automation within the technology used.

“The next step in reducing domestic food waste is to design technology that knows what you have bought, where it is stored and how to use it, so people can focus on cooking and eating.”