December 23, 2024

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Park Chan-woo, head of Home Internet of Things Business at Samsung Electronics speaks at a press briefing on Samsung Food in Seoul on Thursday. (Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it would be launching a new food platform application offering personalized recipes and diet plan services using artificial intelligence at this year’s IFA, set to be held in Berlin early next month.

The new platform, Samsung Food, would integrate all the food-related functions and services Samsung has launched previously, such as Family Hub’s Smart Recipe, the company said.

Using the app, the users can search for recipes of dishes around the world, save the recipes and also draw up diet plans. Samsung said it has prepared over 160,000 recipes in collaboration with Whisk, the British food tech startup company it acquired in 2019. The number of recipes will increase when the platform officially launches, with the data accumulated by the users as well, the company said.

Like the Family Hub’s Smart Recipe function, Samsung Food can also be connected with Samsung’s cooking-related appliances like refrigerators, and users would be able to control the gadgets and also manage food ingredients using the app, the company added.

“Samsung has been introducing various appliances such as Family Hub refrigerators and Bespoke Cooker, differentiating the products to offer smart cooking experiences for users, using AI and Internet of Things technologies,” Park Chan-woo, head of Samsung's Home Internet of Things Business said.

“We expect Samsung Food to play the role as a personal nutritionist and offer highly-personalized food experiences for the users.”

Set to make global debut at IFA, one of the largest consumer electronics and home appliances trade shows, on Aug. 31, Samsung Food will be launched in 104 countries in eight languages, Samsung said.

The official emphasized the value of using AI to offer quite personalized recipes.

For instance, if a vegan user wants to make a foreign dish that has meat in it, they can select different modes and the app and based on the choice, the app would modify the recipe to replace meat and other ingredients. Dishes could not only be converted into vegan menus, but also into ones that are more family-friendly in taste or use ingredients that are easier to find in the user's country, Park explained.

Under the different modes, the app can also simplify a recipe to reduce cooking time, or make adjustments so that the user can make a dish using only the ingredients at hand.

Samsung Food interface (Samsung Electronics)

Park said Samsung Food seeks to bring together food enthusiasts around the world, and that the company expects to secure at least a million users around the end of this year.

The new platform will have an online community function, where the users can share their own recipes and experiences related to food and cooking.

Within this year, the new platform will also offer connected service with Samsung Health to utilize the health-related information such as the user’s BMI, body composition and calorie intakes, saved from the health app to offer optimal diet plans.

From next year, Samsung will also adopt Vision AI technology, which will enable the app analyze the food in a photo and provide the nutrition information and the recipe.

Samsung's introduction of the food app comes amid growing interest in cooking around the globe. According to data from Korea Rural Economic Institute, the size of the global food tech market is expected reach $360 billion by 2025.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)