An IOTML Based Food Freshness Detection System

Numerous food donation applications like ShareThe-Meal [1], Food Need [2], Waste No Food [3], etc., do not specify how food quality can be verified. The quality of food donated could be compromised. This report aims at verifying the quality of food donated to orphanages. The work described in this paper aims to provide authentic information regarding food quality. It also provides a platform to connect catering services and volunteers who carry out the process of food donation to the required beneficiaries. Sensors like MQ2 and MQ135 are used to detect freshness of food. Eclipse IDE, SQLYOG are used to develop the interactive platform. One of the major assumptions made is that the predicted food sensor values are based on samples collected from a few basic food items. It is highly unfeasible to ensure that the classification of food as spoilt or unspoilt is inclusive of all possible food items. This work allows us to assume the categorization of food quality based on only few basic food items. This work aims at a high rate of detection with regard to classification of food as SPOILT or FRESH. The methodology involves the detection of Carbon Monoxide(CO),Ammonia(NH3) and Benzene(C6H6) values in food. The mechanism involved in this work would definitely ensure the quality of food before it is donated to the orphanage.

I. Introduction

Global food loss and food wastage has generated an increasing amount of concern. The ever-increasing food production cannot guarantee to accommodate the food requirements of a rapidly increasing global population. It would be possible to feed the predicted additional population (9.8 billion people expected by 2050 [4]) by simply not throwing away food. Other experts believe that if we can cut our food waste even by just half, we can close the food gap. Greenhouse gases like methane mixed with Carbon Dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons heat up the earth’s atmosphere finally causing global warming. The initiatives being taken to reduce food wastage are many, however the actual reduction in food waste is hardly seen. The presence of many food donation applications has not ensured the quality of provided food which puts the health of the needy at risk along with the risk of increased food wastage. The work described in this paper intends to provide quality food for the needy through detection of the food freshness and reduction of food waste. The quality of food cannot be compromised especially when the food is being donated to orphanages, as unhygienic and spoilt food may cause food poisoning in children. This paper proposes a method through which the above issue can be tackled.MQ 2 and MQ 135 gas sensors will be used to detect the amount of ammonia, carbon dioxide and methane released by the food to achieve quality check for the freshness of food. The values sensed in collaboration with the algorithm, i.e Random Forest will be used to classify if the food is spoilt or not. A web application has been developed that can be maintained by the admin. An Android application will be utilised by registered catering services and orphanages. The Admin validates the food delivery volunteers. Registered catering services upload details of food being donated along with the current caterer location. Orphanages can also send prior requests to the respective catering services if they are in need of food.