The average American family throws away more than $2,000 worth of food every year, totaling about $165 billion when accounted for the whole country. It’s wasteful and unnecessary, and a new Chicago startup wants to help mitigate the problem by reminding you what’s already in your fridge.
Ovie Smarterware, founded by Ty Thompson, makes circular smart tags designed to attach to food items in a fridge. With a sticky gel backing, they can attach to a piece of Tupperware, a milk carton or even a bunch of bananas.
To activate them, users must own an Amazon Alexa device. Users just press the button on the tag, tell Alexa what they are attaching it to and then Ovie’s connected platform will use estimates it pulls from its database to let users know how much time they have to eat something before it spoils.
Once activated, the tags light up green to signify a fresh items, and turn yellow and eventually to red, which signifies that the item has likely spoiled. Every time the tag turns the next color, users will also get a notification on their phone via the Ovie app.
“We hope that as you start to see those tags in your fridge, it helps change your behavior,” Thompson said. “It helps you remember that there is food you can eat.”
Ovie Smarterware launched on Kickstarter May 22 and has since hit its goal of $40,000, raising more than $43,000 as of Tuesday morning. And the campaign still has 15 days to go.
“We had a really, really strong first day,” Thompson said. “It’s exciting. We’ve been pre-promoting for a while.”
Other than the tags, Ovie makes kitchen clips and Tupperware that have specific places to attach the tags. But Ovie’s kitchen accessories, which are manufactured in China, aren’t necessary to use the tags, Thompson said.
In addition to letting you know when something in your fridge is going to spoil, the Ovie app will also suggest meal ideas based on ingredients in your fridge at a given time. Once a tagged food item has been eaten, users can hold down the tag's button for three seconds to reset it, and it will be ready for reuse right away.
An Ovie Smarterware kit selling on the Kickstarter page that includes three smart tags and three clips goes for $60. Another kit that includes three Tupperware containers and three tags costs $100.
Thompson said he first thought of the idea for Smarterware after leftovers of his favorite pasta dish had been forgotten and abandoned in his refrigerator.
“I just got so frustrated because I love this dish, and it’s even better after it’s sat in the fridge for a few days,” Thompson said. “I was frustrated that I was throwing out food that was delicious and that I love.”
Right now, Ovie's prototype only works with Amazon Alexa, but by the time the startup commercially launches and delivers the Kickstarter orders in February 2019, Thompson said he hopes the tags will be compatible with Google Home devices as well. And later down the line, he also hopes to work with Apple’s Siri.
“Frankly, I don’t think we could be building this if it wasn’t for the rise of the smart home devices like Alexa,” Thompson said. “The original idea that we had was back in 2014 and smart home devices weren’t even a thing at that point. Our biggest struggle was how to build something that can keep track of what’s inside of a fridge without people having to pull out their phones and type it in.”
To get a sense of how consumers would react to Ovie Smaterware, the team made an appearance at CES in January.
“When we were at CES, we spoke to over 2,500 people over the four days we were there,” Thompson said. “I can count on one hand the number of people that said ‘It’s not really for me.’ But the vast majority of people said ‘Yes, this is a problem that I have and I need a solution for it.’”
