Ingredient Hero

Problem + our solution: Food waste is a significant global problem that has major economic, social, and environmental consequences. It contributes to environmental degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change. According to the City of Toronto’s website, Canada’s 2.3 million tonnes of avoidable household food waste is equivalent to 6.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s more than 2 million cars on the road!

When organic wastes like food are disposed of in landfills, they produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which harms the air quality in our environment. Furthermore, the production of food involves the use of a range of resources, including water, land, energy, and fertilizer. When food is wasted, it means that these resources have been used in vain.

Excessive meat consumption is also a serious issue that affects us today. According to a 2021 National Geographic article, meat consumption is responsible for thousands of annual air quality-related deaths.

Lastly, food waste which goes to landfills is a major economic issue, as it represents a significant loss of resources and money. The prices of groceries, which are expected to rise five to seven percent over the course of this year, are undeniably draining your wallet. In fact, this rise in prices adds hundreds of dollars to an average Canadian family’s yearly expenses.

With Ingredient Hero, you can say goodbye to money lost on wasted ingredients. Using our help, you'll never have to worry about the ingredients that you don’t know how to incorporate into your meals, so you don’t have to throw them away when they expire, while also reducing your meat consumption. Through our website, you can have access to endless vegetarian recipes in a matter of seconds. We eliminate the chore of spending ages searching for a good vegetarian recipe (since they can often be hard to find).

You will minimize your food waste, in turn preventing the release of methane as well as the wastage of resources! Don’t fret about what to make for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Ingredient Hero provides you with a wide range of recipes using your available ingredients before they have the chance to expire.

Using our website is simple. All you have to do is type in the ingredients you are looking to use. We will do the rest. Once you input the ingredients, you will be presented with a delicious recipe, complete with step-by-step instructions, the time it will take to make, and an ingredients list.

Technicalities + developing process: First, we wrote a JavaScript code for generating a recipe using the power of ChatGPT, next we used in-line CSS on our HTML file to stylize our website, easily receive user input, and display the recipes in an easy-to-read format. We used fetch, a JavaScript function, to fetch data from the OpenAI API and make our website come together. Building this website was only made possible by using Autocode’s unique features to implement OpenAI into the heart of our code. This made the code simple and enabled us to provide recipes for even the most odd combinations of ingredients since it removes the need for manually making a recipe library.

Lastly, we experimented using HTML and CSS to change the colors, fonts, and positions of the elements to make the user interface more pleasing and practical.

Accessibility: We made sure the readability was adequate even for users with poor vision:

Large text size
Bold text
Well-contrasting theme yet still aesthetically pleasing and calming colors

Simple interface as to not have it be overwhelming and difficult to navigate:

Friendly for users with ADHD, for example

Future plans: We used Figma to design a possible app that accommodates for prospective new features while maintaining our unique simplicity and ease of navigation. Users can create an account to keep track of their meal planning, and it is also easier to save all the recipes that they find. We also plan on making use of AI to estimate when a product is set to go bad, (bananas, for example) and sending the user a reminder notification to use up their ingredients 48 hours before they expire/rot. Having our future plans set from now allow us to be prepared to stay relevant and competitive. On top of that, the UI will constantly be updated to have a cleaner look and add personalization choices. Finally, our program will go through an optimization process on a regular basis to decrease processing times for user requests.

Conclusion: Whether you're a seasoned chef or a beginner in the kitchen, the Ingredient Hero website is the perfect tool for anyone looking to expand their culinary horizons, implement positive eating habits, and discover new and exciting dishes. Ingredient Hero knows just what to do with those ingredients that you leave to expire in the back of your fridge. Try it out today and say goodbye to mealtime indecision forever, while also becoming more eco-friendly!

NOTE: In case the bitly link doesnt work use this link : https://raimaabsara.autocode.dev/watermelon-lover@dev/untitled.html Our future app idea is located in the attached figma link