These light tags are the smartest way to cut down on food waste

If you’re looking to cut down on the amount of food you waste week on week, I think I’ve found the smartest solution. Following several years of development, the Ovie LightTags are finally available for the US market, and they could be the solution to your food waste problem.

According to Business Waste Management, over a third of all food that’s produced globally goes to waste, with the UK throwing away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a year. As food waste continues to be an issue year on year, many brands are looking for a way to solve this problem – and unsurprisingly, most solutions are in the form of smart home technology.

Many of the best fridge freezers are being given AI or smart technology features, including sensors that scan the food you put inside it and monitor its freshness levels to notify you when your food is likely to turn bad. As you’d expect, a double-door smart fridge from the likes of LG and Samsung are quite expensive, but Ovie has found a way to do something similar but on a smaller scale.

The Ovie LightTags are reusable sticky connectors that attach to food storage and track your food’s freshness. Using internal sensors, the Ovie LightTags set a timer and track the status of your food, to remind you when it's about to expire and what food you should prioritise over others.

Rather than using an app, the Ovie LightTags have a smart sensing light ring on the outside which displays three different colours to display its tracking stages. Just like a traffic light, the green light means it’s still tracking, the yellow light indicates that the food will last for 24 hours and the red means your food has expired.

Ovie has also taken into consideration those who are colourblind, as the Ovie LightTags blink at different rates as they change colours and stages. As the stages change from fresh to expired, the light will flash slowly and speed up to show that the food has gone off.

Weighing just 0.07 ounces, the Ovie LightTags are small and lightweight, and they can attach to multiple storage materials, including glass, plastic and even wax paper. They’re extremely easy to use, as all you have to do is click them onto your container and press the button to activate the timer.

As someone who tends to batch cook food, I like to think I’m quite good at eating leftovers and keeping my food waste to a minimum. However, when I go to check my fridge each week, I always have the occasional soggy fruit and leftover food containers that I’ve forgotten about, so the Ovie LightTags could definitely help me keep track of my food waste, and save money in the process.

The Ovie LightTags are available to buy from $20 for a single tag. There are also three, six and nine tag options available which vary from $58 - $138. As of writing, there’s no availability or pricing in the UK.

For more food saving advice, check out these 5 reasons you need a food waste disposal unit.