New features in Samsung’s AI-powered Food and Recipes app make meal planning and food management easier. With Samsung Food, you can now add items to your grocery list simply by taking a photo. The app can then suggest recipes based on the foods you have, automatically remove them when you cook a recipe using anything on the list, and then add foods back to the list when you check them off your shopping list.
Previously, the food list could only be accessed through the SmartThings app and the built-in tablet on the Samsung Family Hub smart refrigerator, which limited its usefulness. Now, as part of the cross-platform Samsung Food app, it turns the service into a truly useful all-in-one shopping, food management, meal planning and cooking app.
But it will cost you. These new features are part of Samsung Food Plus, the paid tier of the free food management app. Priced at $6.99 per month ($59.99 per year), the service, in addition to the food list feature, removes in-app ads, offers tailored seven-day meal plans, allows users to personalize recipes using artificial intelligence, and Track nutritional goals. The app works on iOS and Android, and online requires a Samsung account.
I tested Samsung Foods last year, and while I loved how easy it was to import recipes from anywhere, and how it tailored the meal plan for me each week, adding items to the food list, and the meal plan didn’t suggest recipes based on that list order People are depressed. With this update, both complaints have been resolved.
Samsung says the service now builds meal plans based on your food list and prioritizes items “closer to the use-by date” (this must be set manually). Plus, the new Search Food List feature makes it easy to find recipes based on the food you have. All of this will make meal planning and shopping easier, as long as you’re willing to do it all within Samsung’s apps.
The main feature of the new update is visual artificial intelligence. This uses your phone’s camera to identify items to add to your food list. Just take a photo of anything in your pantry or refrigerator and the ingredients will be added to the list.
Vision AI is also present in the latest Family Hub refrigerator, with a built-in artificial intelligence camera that can automatically add certain foods to the food list. However, Samsung says the app version can identify more than 40,000 ingredients using a smartphone’s camera, while the refrigerator can only identify 33 ingredients. This is because the refrigerator processes the image locally, while the app can take advantage of cloud processing.
Samsung Food also features AI-guided cooking steps that integrate with compatible Samsung ovens to preheat, set timers and adjust temperatures based on the recipe you’re cooking right from the app.
Samsung Foods debuted it last year at IFA 2023, and the new features will be announced ahead of next week’s Berlin tech show (think Europe’s version of CES). These new food management features help complete the app’s focus as the ultimate meal planning tool, allowing you to organize recipes from anywhere, more easily enter food into your refrigerator and pantry, and then plan meals based on what you have on hand .
In addition to making it easier to add groceries to a list, some new automation features can simplify maintaining that list. Once you finish cooking something, the app automatically removes it from your food list and adds it to your shopping list in the Samsung Food app. When you shop using a list, the app can automatically add purchased items to your food list – organizational nirvana!
The benefit of a food list is knowing what’s in your refrigerator and pantry and keeping that knowledge up to date is a more tailored meal plan that uses the items you have. This can help reduce food waste and grocery bills. While $7 a month is expensive, if it works as advertised, it could save you money on your monthly grocery bill.
Samsung Food Plus is now available and in addition to the features mentioned above, it also includes a full week of customized meal plans with recipes based on your nutritional needs, chosen diets and previous recipe preferences. The free version comes with three days of recommendations.
