Introduction
According to a report jointly issued by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) in 2022, it has been stated that 1.05 billion tonnes of food was wasted in the year with 60% wastage at the household level, 28% at the commercial or food services level, and 12% at the retail level.
Food wastage has become one of the most worrisome issues of the world as it has numerous environmental, social, and economic implications. This is because wastage of food often leads to lost resources and uncalled for environmental strain.
To help reduce the issue of food wastage, AI and machine learning algorithms are used in the form of recipe recommender that helps household, commercial kitchens as well as retail use minimize wastage by suggesting recipes that utilize leftover ingredients or ingredients that have an early expiry date.
In this blog, we will explore the working and importance of recipe recommender along with its various use cases and benefits.
Recipe Recommendation Systems
Before knowing about the various use cases and benefits of recipe recommender, let us understand the basic aspects of recipe recommendation systems.
What are Recipe Recommendation Systems?
Recipe recommendation systems or recipe recommenders help provide recipe ideas for reducing food waste. Basically, they are user-friendly platforms that use AI and machine learning algorithms and provide smart recipe recommendations for leftovers to the users.
This is done as the systems match the ingredients present with the user with relevant recipes and provide them with appropriate meal suggestions that maximize the utilization of the ingredients.
When a user inputs the ingredients that they have, the recipe recommender provides relevant recipe suggestions with minimum extra ingredients, leading to the minimization of food items going bad because of non-usage or expiration dates.
These devices are present in many forms in the market such as online applications, websites, or even smart kitchen devices that help in improving food waste management with recipe suggestions.
What is the Importance of Recipe Recommendation Systems?
Recipe recommendation systems have gained importance over time as they help to minimize or tackle the most profound issue of the world – food wastage. With thousands of people suffering from starvation, the least we can do as human beings is not waste the food we have and negatively affect Mother Earth. Therefore, recipe recommenders have gained popularity as they help with sustainable cooking with recipe recommendation by reducing the likelihood of kitchen waste due to the ingredients being left unused or forgotten.
Many a times, food is wasted because either people forget that they have a particular item or they have no idea of what all can be made with the ingredients they have in store. With the help of recipe recommenders, these problems have been solved as these systems help in effective and efficient meal planning and inspiring creativity amongst the users, leading to minimized food wastage.
How do Recipe Recommendation Systems Work?
Now the million dollar question is that how do these recipe recommendation systems actually work? Recipe recommenders use the data provided through the ingredients list, nutritional information, and user preferences to create personalized recipe suggestions for the users.
The AI and machine learning algorithms that are at work to reduce kitchen waste with recipe recommendations analyze the input data, assess the compatibility of various ingredients, and identify recipes that have little or no additional items.
With the help of machine learning, the recipe recommendation systems improve their recommendations over time by continuously learning from user feedback, which leads to improved accuracy and personalization over time.
Use Cases of Recipe Recommenders
The various use cases of recipe recommenders include, but are not limited to, the following:
Reducing Wastage in Commercial Kitchens
The most important and foremost use case of recipe recommenders is the ability of reducing food wastage with recipe recommendations.
As commercial kitchens and restaurants require large amounts of ingredients on a daily basis as they need to prepare fresh food for the guests, they often have a high margin of food wastage on a daily basis.
In such a scenario, chefs can reduce kitchen waste with recipe recommendations as the recipe recommenders acts as a chef assistant and helps them in managing stock by suggesting dishes that make use of almost all the ingredients that are near their expiry date.
As a result, commercial kitchens and restaurants are extremely helpful in reducing waste and maximizing ingredient utilization.
Community and Food Bank Support
Community and food banks are the charitable organizations that store and donate food and hygiene supplies to all the people in need. These organizations may sometimes distribute raw food and supplies, but there also comes a time when they prepare a meal to feed the needy as a charitable service.
Therefore, recipe recommenders play an important role in helping community and food banks to prepare meals as per the variety of ingredients that are donated to them.
Such organizations mainly use recipe recommenders for reducing food waste by preparing meals from all the available resources and making sure that all the perishable items that are donated are used efficiently and that only very few or no resources are wasted.
Reducing Food Waste in Grocery Retail
Grocery retail stores can use the recipe recommendation systems in an extremely unique manner. They can use the recipe recommenders to offer recipe ideas to the customers for items that are over-stocked or are reaching an expiration date.
By suggesting probable recipes along with the food items, the grocery stores can encourage numerous buyers to actually buy those items as well as use them, which would have otherwise gone unnoticed and unsold.
As a result, the grocery retail stores along with the recipe recommenders become a small part of helping the planet by contributing to minimizing food wastage.
Benefits of Recipe Recommenders
The various benefits of recipe recommenders include, but are not limited to, the following:
Reduced Food Wastage
Recipe recommenders have proven to be the answer to the question of how to reduce food waste with recipes. This is because recipe recommenders directly tackle the issue of food wastage by maximizing the use of all the available ingredients that the user has.
When users have the option to prepare new and delicious food items from the ingredients that they already have, they often choose to make such food. This leads to the minimization of food wastage, which significantly contributes to the reduction of overall food wastage on the planet.
Cost Savings for Households and Businesses
Wastage and cost and directly proportional to each other. This means that the more the reduction in food wastage, the more is the savings in costs. Therefore, reduced food wastage automatically leads to higher cost savings.
For households, cost savings come in the form of spending less on groceries as no ingredient is wasted. Whereas, for commercial kitchens or restaurants, cost is saved due to better inventory management and reduction in costs that are directly associated with purchasing and disposing off of spoiled food.
Conclusion
Recipe recommenders have transformed the way people have started approaching the world of cooking. With various recipe apps to minimize food waste, users have started being environmentally conscious and have started working towards a sustainable environment.
By using recipe recommenders, organizations such as retail grocery stores, commercial kitchens, restaurants, as well as general households can reduce their food wastage and increase their cost savings.
We at CrossML have our own in-house recipe recommendation system that provides you with unique and delicious recipe ideas for reducing food waste and increasing cost savings. Our recipe recommenders make sure that the suggested recipe is in accordance with your input data with respect to the ingredients, nutritional values, dietary preferences, and any other specific instructions. As a result, our users can move towards healthy eating habits while protecting the environment as well as their budget.
FAQs
Recipe recommenders help to reduce food waste by suggesting the users recipe ideas that are based on available ingredients to make sure that all items are used before they get spoiled. By providing such meal suggestions that can be prepared by using the ingredients in hand, recipe recommenders prevent unnecessary food disposal and promote sustainability.
Features that make recipe recommender effective are ingredient-based matching, dietary customization, and tracking the expiration dates of the ingredients. As a result, the recipe recommenders become highly effective as they make sure that the suggestions are relevant to the needs of the user, which reduces the need for additional shopping and prioritizes items that have a nearby expiration date.
Yes, recipe recommender can improve meal planning by streamlining it. Recipe recommenders provide instant recipe ideas that are based on available ingredients, helping users decide what to eat and cook in a timely manner. This further helps to reduce planning time, promote balanced meals, and make sure that fewer items are wasted or spoiled. As a result, the process of meal planning becomes more efficient and waste-free.
The benefits of using recipe recommender include reduced food wastage, cost savings, time-efficient meal planning, healthier eating habits, and improved sustainability.
