Thai software developers win APEC 2022 app challenge

According to the United Nations, food waste is a major problem. According to APEC, two Thai engineers have created an app that can help provide a solution. In doing so, the pair won the APEC 2022 App Challenge last week, besting teams of engineers from 28 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bangkok-based software engineers Palakon Kotchapansompote and Peerawit Tungwongsin won the competition by designing and developing an app named Kitchen@Venture. They described it as a digital tool for consumers and restaurant owners to create healthy meals from leftovers and unused food in their refrigerators.

Those using the app can take a photo of food in their fridge, upload it and receive suggestions for healthy meals they can prepare based on what they have available. This can help prevent people from simply throwing away unused food, thereby wasting it, because they may not have enough of the ingredients for the usual meals they make.

“This is really an innovation to enable us to engage with youth, to show how technology can be used to bridge development gaps,” said Rebecca Sta Maria, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has said that 30 percent of all food in developed countries is wasted, thrown in the trash by consumers, supermarkets and restaurants because it is no longer fresh or has gone unsold. This is happening while nearly a billion people worldwide are hungry or malnourished.

Thailand is the host country of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2022. As part of the year-long series of events, it staged the 6th 2022 APEC App Challenge, inviting young developers and digital entrepreneurs from across the region to build new mobile and web tools .

“The App Challenge is very instrumental in encouraging youth to play a more pivotal role in society, in development and how to draw on and use digital technology,” said Thani Thongpakdi, Permanent Secretary for Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Judges said that the winning app successfully demonstrated an exceptionally creative digital solution that helps to promote inclusive growth and the bio-circular-green (BCG) economy, which Thailand is promoting at APEC to achieve more inclusive, balanced and sustainable growth.

Photo courtesy of https://www.apec.org/