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U of G students develop app to reduce food waste

Students won silver for their app at the ElleHacks hackathon

Two U of G students created an award-winning app that works to help people reduce the amount of food waste they produce.

“We had to use technology for environmental and sustainable decision-making,” said Prabhleen Ratra, a recent graduate of University of Guelph’s computer science program. “We were just thinking of ways of how we can use technology with food.”

The app, called food cycling, created by Ratra and her team won silver at the ElleHacks hackathon this year. In 2021, their team won gold for an app called kiddy bank, it taught children how to be financially responsible.

Also on the team ae Ananyan Thukral, Shin Wah Low and Judy Yeonghyeon Ham.

ElleHacks is a three day long hackathon representing women and non-binary individuals with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). 

“I think this field is very men-dominated,” said Thukral, a fifth-year computer science student. “I think it is important as women to have that safe space where we can also create, we can innovate and we can also gain some kind of confidence.”

“This was a very women and non-binary oriented hackathon. So it was all about empowering women and how we come up with great ideas and how they can move forward in this field,” said Ratra.

Ratra and her team created the app food cycling, which isn't yet publicly available, that helps users reduce food waste by suggesting recipes to include every part of an ingredient.

“We’re trying to suggest recipes based on the part that they don’t eat and try to make it appetizing,” she said. The example they used in their presentation at the hackathon was how to cook chicken neck, which is often not used.

The app is in a prototype phase and the team is still deciding whether they are going to pursue developing the app. Thukral hopes they can develop the app this summer.

This also includes partnering with grocery stores so users of the app can redeem points earned from food cycling to purchase food.

"A lot of people don't waste food intentionally, instead it's because they don't know how to use some parts of the food," said Thukral.


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Santana Bellantoni

About the Author: Santana Bellantoni

Santana Bellantoni was born and raised in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. As a general assignment reporter for Guelph Today she is looking to discover the communities, citizens and quirks that make Guelph a vibrant city.
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