Are you like me (or Lucia, my wife)? Do you sometimes forget the expiration dates of the food in the refrigerator? Are you leaving your lunch leftovers in the fridge for too long? You are the perfect users for Nudge.
The Nudge Tag is an efficient system for “marking by man” a food placed in the fridge. It is a low-cost smart label that acts as an interactive post-it and fights food waste. You no longer need to remember expiration dates, or write them on the jars (I confess): this small army of sentinels is activated and warns us.
An interactive mini hub against food waste
How the system works (subject of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter you find here)? Few, simple steps.
- Enter an expiration date or scan a food;
- Via Bluetooth, the hub synchronizes with the various Smart Tags;
- The hub updates its data on a secure cloud, via Wi-Fi;
- The system detects the opening of the refrigerator door and updates the Tags.
- Provides summary information when the door is closed.
Essential utility
It may seem like a trivial system to you, but I find it an important tool of awareness against food waste. More than 800 million people around the world go hungry every day. In the US, food waste is over 40 million tons every year. In Italy 27kg of food are thrown away per person every year. The Nudge Tag ecosystem wants to overcome the problem with technology and connectivity.
Assuming Nudge Tags' funding campaign reaches its target and production goes smoothly, worldwide shipping should take place around July 2022. Does all this time have to wait?
It's against food waste, waiting that long is a waste of time.
