Futuristic fridge will automatically order fresh food

LONDON - A ‘fridge of the future’ that tells you what to cook with your left-overs and automatically re-orders fresh food is being designed in Britain.

The self-cleaning ‘fridge of the future’ will automatically place supermarket home delivery orders when required and move food near its use-by date to the front shelves.

Researchers hope the fridge could clean itself, cut down on wasted food and offer recipes - which could be tailored to different countries, cuisines and seasons depending on whether people want to whip up something Italian or fancy a curry.

With the British putting in 36 million hours every year of free overtime - leaving little time for household chores, the fridge could help save precious time during hectic modern-day lives, the Daily Mail reports.

These new developments are in the pipeline thanks to collaboration between scientists at the University of Central Lancashire and online supermarket Ocado.

The planned new features include the ability for fridges to scan their shelves to see what is in stock and use this information to both plan meals and automatically place a supermarket food order.

Ocado says these could be hooked up to their website making grocery requests even simpler.

The smart fridge will use ‘nano-articulated technology’ shelf surfaces which, whilst smooth to touch, will have millions of independently controlled micro-tiles which will manoeuvre products that need to be eaten soon to the fridge’s front.

The fridge will also monitor gases released by degrading foods and push these to the front of its shelves, according to the collaborators.

Ultrasound-scanning technology built into the door will allow the fridge to ’swipe and capture’ the food on a plate before and after mealtime, meaning it can assess what type and amount of food is wasted.

Simon Somerville, a future forecasting expert from the University of Central Lancashire, said that people feeling lazy could use the proposed fridge to whip up a recipe for them.