Food waste in New Zealand creates 409, 234 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. By preventing food waste, we can reduce our carbon footprints and save money during the cost-of-living crisis.

Reduce food waste

We have designed a magnetic device that can track how long an item of food (particularly leftovers) has been in the fridge, and alert users when they should eat or throw away food.The device has LEDs on the side, which change between red, yellow, and green lights depending on how much longer the user has to eat the food. These LEDs are controlled by alight-dependent resistor, meaning that they only turn on when the fridge door is opened and light is let in. This helps to preserve the battery and increase the life of the product.

The target demographic for this product is students in flatting households. We chose this demographic due to our research, which found that people aged 18-24 create the most food waste. This demographic is also easily accessible to us, as students ourselves. Additionally, we found that this demographic tends to throw away leftovers the most often. Thus, we decided to focus our investigation and design on reducing the wastage of leftover food.The device can connect to an app through Bluetooth, which sends alerts to the user when their leftovers are close to expiry. Users can also track what leftovers they have, and how much longer each meal has left before expiry through the app. The length of the food “timer”can be automatically set by the user selecting what type of food they are storing, or manually chosen if the user knows how long before the food expires.