MUMBAI, India, July 7 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202641077273 A) filed by Dayananda Sagar University on June 23, 2026, for Fresh-Minder: Automated Expiry Date Tracking For Food Safety And Waste Reduction.
Inventors include Shivamma D; Dr. U Pavan Kumar; Dr. Shaila S G; Pavan Kumar G; Rahul V; Sumanth S G; and Rakshith Ignatius R.
The application for the patent was published on July 03, 2026, under issue no. 27/2026.
Abstract: A system where a bar-code scanner at a retail checkout counter records the batch of prod-ucts sold and updates inventory at a granular level, describing a consumer mobile app which displays notifications based on product inventory and expiry dates. On the enter-prise side, a checkout counter equipped with a barcode scanner logs each sold item at the batch level, recording the manufacturing and expiry dates of the batch being sold, not simply as a unit count decrement. Inventory is updated atomically at the time of scan, ensuring real-time accuracy even in the face of concurrent transactions. The system en-forces a First Expired, First Out (FEFO) policy, automatically prioritizing stock closest to expiry at checkout. Upon payment, a data payload containing product names, quantities, and expiry dates for all purchased food items is encoded as a QR code and printed on the customer’s receipt. On the consumer side, a mobile application scans the receipt QR code and automatically populates a personal food inventory without requiring any manual data entry. The invent-tory is stored locally on the device, enabling all functions to operate offline. As stored items approach their expiry dates, the application delivers a four-stage escalating notify-cation sequence, alerting the user progressively from seven days before expiry to the day of expiry, ensuring timely awareness before food becomes unsafe or unusable. The application analyses the current inventory to suggest recipes which utilize items close to expiry. A conversational AI assistant enables users to browse recipes with natural-language requests, including requests in regional languages and dietary restrictions. In addition, the app tracks wasted items and provides a consumer-facing dashboard that vi-sualises waste counts, financial loss, and environmental impact. This invention bridges the gap between enterprise point-of-sale inventory tracking and household food management, reducing food waste and improving consumer safety through an integrated, scalable, and offline-capable system.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
