Smart MealPlanet

Smart MealPlanet - Meal Plan page 2
Smart MealPlanet - Meal Plan page 1
Smart MealPlanet - Home page

Inspiration

Every year, tons of edible food is wasted simply because people forget expiry dates or don’t know how to use ingredients in time. We wanted to design a tool that helps people stay focused, eat healthier, and reduce waste — making sustainability part of everyday cooking.

What it does

Smart MealPlanet is a smart meal planning web app with a virtual fridge. Users enter ingredients with expiry dates, and our system (powered by Google Gemini AI) generates personalized meal plans and recipe suggestions. The app prioritizes items that will expire soon, ensuring food is used efficiently and waste is minimized.

How we built it

We built Smart MealPlanet with Next.js for the frontend and API routes for AI integration. The virtual fridge is stored locally, with ingredients color-coded by expiry urgency (red/yellow/green).
When users click “Generate Plan”, the fridge contents are sent to Gemini AI, which returns a full meal plan tailored to available ingredients and serving sizes.

Challenges we ran into

Designing a clean and intuitive virtual fridge UI that encourages users to input expiry dates.
Handling data persistence (localStorage) while keeping the app lightweight and accessible.
Ensuring AI-generated meal plans were practical, not just theoretical recipes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a functional prototype that combines AI meal planning with sustainability goals.
Designing the expiry-date prioritization system (red → yellow → green) that automatically reduces food waste.
Creating a user-friendly interface that makes sustainable choices easy and enjoyable.

What we learned

We learned how powerful small design decisions (like expiry prioritization and fridge visualization) can be in shaping sustainable behavior.
We also deepened our skills in Next.js, API integration, and user-centric design.