‘Fridge with attitude’ wins Future of Food Award

Two teenagers from a school in Berkshire have won the ‘Future of Food’ category of an awards scheme, which challenges secondary school students to come up with technologies that provide a better way of doing things.

The pupils from Luckley Oakfield School in Wokingham received their prize in the 2013 TeenTech awards for their ‘fridge with attitude’, which took the idea of a smart fridge to new heights through the use of a database to act as the fridge’s intelligence.

Their idea allows homeowners to extract valuable information from the database via their mobile phones and to know what food is out of date and suggest recipes using ingredients from the whole kitchen.

Winners Amy Thomas (15) and Jasmine Kaur (14), both Year 10 students, said: “TeenTech has given us the opportunity to research and learn something that we chose to explore and find out about.”

Future of Food

The ‘Future of Food’ category was sponsored by the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and Heinz. Shortlisted teams made presentations to judges from both organisations, together with Charles Arthur, The Guardian’s technology editor at The Royal Society last Monday [June 24].

The students will attend a presentation at Buckingham Palace on Monday [July 1] with TeenTech patron HRH Duke of York.

Other shortlisted entries in the category included a shopping trolley, biodegradable cutlery, shopping glasses and an emergency ration pack for those living in flooded areas.

Jon Poole, IFST chief executive and TeenTech judge, said “The judges were all really impressed by the excellent standard of entries and the amount of work and commitment put in by the teams.

“As an Institute we see it as vital that we play our part in stimulating the minds of students to consider the science and technology behind our food.”