Personalized Recipe Suggestor

Inspiration

A large amount of food is wasted simply because people don’t know what to cook with the ingredients they already have, especially when items are close to expiry. We wanted to solve this everyday problem by helping users make smart cooking decisions before food goes bad, reducing food waste at the household level.

What it does

Personalized Recipe Suggestor prioritizes soon-to-expire edible food and suggests recipes that can be cooked immediately using those ingredients.

For each recipe, the app provides:

• Step-by-step cooking instructions
  
• Calorie information
  
• Protein content (in grams)
  
• Difficulty level
  
• Cuisine options (Indian, Italian, Chinese, etc.)
  
• YouTube video references
  

Users can exclude ingredients based on allergies, explore different cuisines, and save recipes for later — ensuring food is used efficiently instead of being wasted.

How we built it

• Implemented a priority-based system to rank ingredients by expiry date
  
• Built a recipe recommendation logic focused on expiring ingredients
  
• Integrated Gemini with tools to fetch Cooking Instruction, youtube videos ,new recipes etc
• Added filters for cuisine preferences and allergy exclusions
  
• Embedded YouTube video references for better cooking guidance
  
• Enabled recipe saving for future use
  

Challenges we ran into

• Designing an effective expiry-based prioritization algorithm
  
• Handling ingredient substitutions without breaking recipe accuracy
  
• Managing allergy exclusions safely
  
• Maintaining nutritional accuracy for dynamically generated recipes
  

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Created a system that directly helps reduce food waste
  
• Delivered a personalized and engaging cooking experience
  
• Combined sustainability, nutrition, and convenience in one platform
  
• Solved a real-world problem with practical impact
  

What we learned

• Everyday problems can be solved effectively with simple prioritization logic
  
• User constraints like allergies and preferences are critical
  
• Sustainability-focused applications can be both useful and engaging
  
• Clear problem definition leads to better product decisions
  

What's next for Personalized Recipe Suggestor

• Barcode scanning for automatic expiry detection
  
• Smart alerts for ingredients nearing expiry
  
• AI-based taste and preference learning
  
• Weekly meal planning using expiring ingredients
  
• Integration with grocery platforms to prevent over-purchasing
  

Built With

• gemini
• javascript
• langchain
• langgraph
• mongodb
• python
• react
• youtube