{
  "id": 16329516,
  "title": "Fridge Sloth 🦥: snap your fridge, get a grocery list and healthy meals, fully offline on Gemma",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/24/fridge-sloth-snap-your-fridge-get-a-grocery-list-and-healthy-meals",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-24T13:38:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/finallyjay/fridge-sloth-snap-your-fridge-get-a-grocery-list-and-healthy-meals-fully-offline-on-gemma-2fkp"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Fridge Sloth is a hack project built for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3. It aims to help you quickly decide what to buy at the grocery store by simply snapping a photo of your fridge. The app uses Gemma 3 (4B) through Ollama and runs fully offline on your machine, with no account or API key required.\n\nTo use Fridge Sloth, you take a photo of your fridge and it lists the food it can see, along with an estimate of how much you have of each item (plenty, some, or low). Next, it checks this list against the items you always keep in your pantry (staples) and generates a grocery list of what you are running low on or need to buy. Finally, the app suggests three healthy meals that can be made mostly from the items already in your fridge, with a maximum preparation time of 30 minutes and only five steps.\n\nThe entire process happens locally on your device, ensuring privacy and no dependence on external APIs or accounts. The app was designed to be minimalistic, utilizing only the standard Python library, Ollama for the AI model, and a single HTML page with vanilla JavaScript. Installation is straightforward, requiring only the installation of Ollama and running a Python server.\n\nThe project follows a strict development process, with 35 tests ensuring the functionality works as expected, even without the AI model. Vision is handled by Gemma 3, which lists all the food it sees in the photo along with the approximate remaining amount. The matching step compares the listed items with your staples, generating a grocery list of what is missing or low. The recipe step generates three healthy meals using the ingredients from the fridge, with a maximum preparation time of 30 minutes and a focus on whole grains, vegetables, and lean proteins. The project emphasizes the importance of verifying the AI's outputs and provides code that ensures this verification process.",
  "summary": "This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady What I Built Fridge Sloth is for the moment you stand in front of the open fridge, door wide open, trying to remember what you need to buy and what on earth you could cook tonight. Instead, you take one photo. Fridge Sloth: Looks at the photo and lists the food it can actually see, with a rough \"plenty /…",
  "key_points": [
    "Fridge Sloth snaps fridge photos to create grocery lists offline",
    "Uses Gemma 3 AI model for food recognition and meal suggestions",
    "Privacy-focused, no account or API key required for operation"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": "https://urgent.news/ill/16329516.png",
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}