IFA 2023: Move over MyFitnessPal, Samsung Food counts calories straight from your fridge

One of the world’s largest electronics brands is using fridges and ovens to measure nutrition and combining it with steps counted on mobile phones.

AI can’t cook you a meal just yet but it will be able to recommend a meal based on your fridge’s content.

Artificial intelligence has spread to food, with major technology companies developing apps that use cameras in fridges to recommend recipes and suggest meals.

Companies have recognised that while AI can’t yet cook a meal, the booming technology can recommend a meal based on a person’s preferences and the items in their fridge, and they are linking that data to mobile health apps that can track sleep time, step counts, heart rates and walking patterns.

The combination of technologies paints a rather vivid picture of how a person’s body responds and how they perform after consuming foods and diets, and Korean technology giant Samsung is betting big on the new direction.

The company announced a product called Samsung Food at the world’s largest trade show in Germany on Thursday. At first glance it appears like any other recipe platform or mobile app, but it’s more than that.



A Samsung smart fridge which uses WiFi to connect to SmartThings.

Samsung Food arrived about seven years after Samsung began installing cameras in refrigerators, first showcasing the technology in 2016.

Three years later, the Korean giant acquired Whisk, just as the platform, which allows users to save and use recipes on their mobile phone, had tripled its staff to 32 and had become profitable.

Vice-president of consumer electronics Jeremy Senior said the shift into the recipe market was the next logical step for Samsung.

It had become fairly normal for consumers with health goals to document their meals and take input from fitness apps, he said.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is to make it a more seamless process, so instead of having to document everything or keep a food diary, we’re removing the complexity,” he said. “You can now track your performance against health goals using the devices that are around you every day, whether that be a smartphone, a watch, refrigerator or an oven.”

Samsung Food, a new recipe app which uses AI to suggest recipes, make the average meal vegan and can turn your oven on and set its temperature.

Samsung said: “The seamless syncing of information such as BMI, body composition and calorie consumption with Samsung Food will help users to hit health goals and maintain a balanced diet.”

A product similar to Samsung Food called SmartThings Cooking was already in operation before the launch but the new app takes the service mainstream and opens the recipe and shopping list components to the broader public.

At the time of the launch, Samsung Food had 160,000 recipes and was available in eight languages. It has “ambassadors” and recipes can be shared on social media.

Samsung Food is also exploring planning and reminders, with both functions available, as well as the ability to create shareable shopping lists.

By the end of 2023, the features will be integrated with the Samsung Health app which measures steps, heart rate and ECG among other health metrics. That app is available across its mobile phone and wearables range.

One year later the app will work with cameras in Samsung fridges, and images taken by users will be analysed to record nutritional information.

Samsung's press conference at IFA in Berlin on Thursday, August 31, 2023. Picture: Supplied

Samsung Food says it will ultimately “support you through every aspect of meal planning and cooking”. “Next year Samsung will use its visionary technology to link with Samsung Food.”

Samsung is looking to gain ground in the space between user health and the appliances used to store and cook food.

Samsung Food also has SmartThings capability, allowing users to control their appliances within the app.

On Thursday, the company announced Wi-Fi integration and new cameras across 13 new kitchen appliances, including ovens, cooktops, range hoods and dishwashers. Those new devices can now be integrated with Samsung’s SmartThings hub, allowing users to control them via their smartphone or TV.

The Samsung Food ap.

Some of the new ovens include cameras that use AI to record food as it is being cooked; the images can then be shared on video platforms and social media. Some ovens can be set at different temperatures.

Samsung Food allows users to change recipes to suit dietary types such as vegetarian or vegan and cater for allergies and nutritional requirements and develop “fusion” dishes.

Joseph travelled to Berlin as a guest of Samsung.