This Founder Started a Tech Business to Reduce Food Waste and Improve Sustainability For a Better Future Somdip Dey, an embedded machine learning scientist at the University of Essex, UK, co-developed the Nosh app with Suman Saha, a computer engineering student at the University of Engineering & Management (UEM), India, to join the fight against food loss and waste.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, almost one-third of the world's food is wasted while more than 800 million people around the world don't have access to an adequate nutritious meal. Somdip Dey, an embedded machine learning scientist at the University of Essex, UK, co-developed the Nosh app with Suman Saha, a computer engineering student at the University of Engineering & Management (UEM), India, to join the fight against food loss and waste.

Dey recalls, "While growing up in India in a humble family we didn't waste any food. But when I moved to the UK I suddenly noticed that people around me waste a lot of food and I knew that given my expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning I could use these tools to do something about it." Dey's humble experience led him to develop Nosh - an artificial intelligence powered food management app that aims to reduce food waste at home by optimizing consumers' food consumption. Nosh also comes with shopping planning, recipe suggestions and intelligent analytics to help the user make data-driven decisions on their food buying and wasting habits.

Nosh has already helped more than 17,000 users across Android and iOS save more than 186,000 food items and reduce carbon emissions by 120 tonnes. Given the success of the Nosh app, in 2021 Dey and Saha co-founded Nosh Technologies, which is a deep-tech company developing algorithms and programs to reduce food waste and sustainability.

Dey continues, "Having a tech business that makes money is great but we also need to think about the society and the sustainability of the planet in the long term so that we can leave a better planet to our children and grandchildren. With our expertise in developing software and artificial intelligence at Nosh Technologies, we aim to achieve that." As the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal aims to reduce food loss and waste by half per capita at retail and consumer levels by 2030, Nosh Technologies aims to develop technological solutions to join this agenda.

Recently, Nosh Technologies also developed a machine learning algorithm named SmartNoshWaste on the blockchain framework for future smart cities that aim to reduce waste in the food supply chain. The work was published in the Smart Cities journal and the experimental evaluation of the data collected from Nosh shows that it is capable of reducing food waste in the supply chain by 9.46 per cent. The development team also updated their Nosh app to incorporate more features such as Nosh Daily and Nosh Shop to help users optimize their consumption better. Nosh Daily feature helps the user to consume news and media content related to food and beverages in-app while Nosh Shop enables the user to buy discounted food from vendors such as shops and restaurants.

Dey mentions, "Although most consumers are aware of our Nosh app we are also developing several technologies using AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and edge computing for different stakeholders such as farmers, warehouse managers, and shopkeepers in the supply chain to reduce waste and improve the sustainability of the planet."