Amazon’s Alexa Can Give You Tips On Food Waste

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The wireless speaker that seems to be in every other household these days, Amazon’s Alexa-controlled Echo speaker, now gives you tips on how to quit wasting food. The speaker uses nothing, but the sound of your voice to help you out with everyday tasks. It’s used for everything from creating to-do lists to shopping online to playing music to giving you the weather and now, Alexa offers tips on how to make the most out of the food you have in your house.

Each one of the Echo’s voice-powered apps is called a “skill.” Its newest “skill” is part of Save the Food‘s campaign to help fight food waste.

If you have any doubts that come across your mind about a questionable food item, you can just call out to Alexa and she’ll let you know what to do. Maybe you want to know if certain brown spots are ok or if a specific smell or color means you’re going to get sick. Alexa might even suggest putting your ripe avocado in the fridge to keep it fresh longer.

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All you have to do is download the app, which was developed by Ad Council and the National Resources Defense Council. Once you have the app downloaded, Alexa becomes an expert in everything from storing produce to expiration dates to reviving a food item that seems like it’s past its prime. This new feature is aimed at educating consumers so they can become a part of limiting food waste in their own homes.

Grub Street reports, “Americans now through away half of the food they buy” and “the average family spends $1,500 a year on food they never eat.” This all adds up to $218 billion worth of food that goes uneaten in the United States each year. Any food that’s not composted usually goes right to a landfill. That means that the water and energy used to grow and process all of that food was wasted.

Let’s all try and be part of the solution. On a positive note, awareness is on the rise and progress is being made little by little, especially with the help of new apps like these.