Sainsbury’s trials connected fridges with Bosch
Sainsbury’s, which is in the process of acquiring Home Retail Group, has partnered with Bosch in a trial of a new refrigerator that has a camera inside, so customers can take “fridge selfies” via a Home Connection app for making purchase decisions when shopping. The trial, based on 20 homes in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, is part of Sainsbury’s Waste Less, Save More initiative. British households reportedly waste 4.2m tonnes of food annually, at a cost of around £1.5bn.

If you are someone who never remembers their shopping list then a camera inside your fridge could provide the ultimate solution.

A British supermarket is offering shoppers a new fridge that has a built in camera inside so they can see if they are running low on butter or milk while standing in the shop aisles.

The appliances allow users to connect to their fridges using their mobile phones to see what they have in their fridge at any time.

British supermarket Sainsbury's has teamed up with German household appliance manufacturer Bosch to give 20 households fridges with built in cameras in a trail aimed at reducing household waste

The technology features in a new line of fridges produced by Bosch and are being trialed by Sainsbury's as part of its Waste less, Save more initiative.

The scheme is aimed at cutting down the amount of food that is wasted and is being tested at 20 households in the town of Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

Each fridge is linked to a Home Connect app, which allows the user to view 'fridge selfies' of the inside of their appliances as well as control the temperature of the device.

The app also promises that in the future it will offer recipe suggestions based on the contents of a fridge.

However, Bosch insists that it all images sent from the fridge to the user are encrypted and so cannot be viewed by anyone but a user with their specific log in details.

Bosch's new range of fridges are being tested by 20 shoppers in the town of Swadlincote in South Derbyshire as part of Sainsbury's Waste less, Save more campaign. British people waste 4.2 million tonnes of food every year, which amounts to a huge cost of £1.5 billion, according to research by Sainsbury's

Sainsbury's reported 70 per cent of them did try to look in their fridge before going to the supermarket to check what they needed, while 40 per cent of those people forgot by the time they were shopping. The new innovation will allow shoppers to check their 'fridge selfies' on their phones to limit food wastage

Details under the app's data protection policy also states that it will share information with third party 'service providers' as well as providing links to websites.

However, Sainsbury's insists it is offering the fridges as part of its attempt to reduce food waste and will not try to promote products to users.

According to research conducted by the supermarket, a quarter of British households waste £235 a year on overbuying products they already have in the fridge.

This amounts to a huge £1.5 billion national waste bill per year.

The 'fridge selfies' can be accessed via the Bosch Home Connect app, which also allows users to control the temperature of their fridge using their mobile phone

A growing number of British people buy top-up items on their way home from work without even checking the fridge before. The camera fridge would allow them to quickly check on their phones before overbuying food

Fruit and veg came in as the most overbought food, with 38 per cent and 35 per cent of shoppers regularly buying more than they need. Milk, cheese and eggs followed close behind.

The Bosch Serie 6 Fridge Freezer KGN36HI32 is available for purchase from John Lewis and Argos, among other retailers

While the fridges are commercially available already, Sainsbury's has given 20 of the appliances to households in Swadlincote to test how they might save on waste.

It claims that while 70 per cent of people try to check the contents of their fridge before, 40 per cent admit that by the time they reach the supermarket they have already forgotten.

Sainsbury's also found that an increasing number of people buy top-up products on their way home from work without checking their fridges, which often leads to duplication.

Paul Crewe, head of sustainability at Sainsbury's, said, 'With 4.2mil tonnes of food wasted each year in the UK we're on a mission to help households plan their shopping better and reduce the amount of food they throw away.'

Charlotte Moran, group marketing manager for Bosch, said, 'Not only does the fridge take pictures which link up with our Home Connect app, you can also control the temperature of the fridge and freezer remotely.

'Our VitaFresh technology will also enable you to keep food up to three times longer.'

Sainsbury's also released advice to encourage people how to organise the food in their fridges so they can easily see what is already in there.

A total of 40 per cent of people separate their meat from their veg, but only nine per cent of people arrange their food by use-by date.

Arranging food by use-by date could bring foods that are about to go off, to the front and therefore make it easier to see what needs to be replaced.

Interestingly Sainsbury's report also revealed that women are responsible for filling the fridge in most households, except for Northern Ireland where men take charge.

While women tend to overbuy fruit and eggs, it's milk and condiments for men.

The supermarket chain is investing £1 million in making Swadlincote the official test-bed of ideas to dramatically cut food waste by 50 per cent over 12 months.