Project Proposal

Title of Invention: The Pizzalarm

Team Name: Summer Paradise

School Name: SMK Merbau

Team members: Yong Kah Chee, Noorul Azzalea binti Mohd Azlie, Ivan Chan Xuan

Teacher-in-charge: Miss Wong Wei Wei

Objectives
Food wastage is a problem to be taken seriously in the 21st century all across developing and
developed nations in the world, including Malaysia. In December 2018, Solid Waste Management
and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) deputy chief executive officer Mohammad Diah
Wahari said that Malaysians threw away 16,688 tonnes of food daily, which is enough to feed 12
million people three times a day.

One of the reasons for food wastage is the expired food. People sometimes leave food in the
cupboard for months, forgetting the expiry date of the food. As a result, food has gone bad and has
to be thrown away. This unnecessary wastage can be prevented if the consumer knew it sooner.
Waste of food also means waste of money and resources, which we seek to solve as well.

Therefore, our team would like to create a system in which the user can be reminded a week before
of the expiry date of the food that he or she has bought. This system can help to solve the food
wastage problem by reminding the users to finish their food before it is expired.

Theme
The theme of the challenge is Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and
Production. By preventing food wastage, we can maximise the consumption of the food produced
by reducing the amount of food which are thrown away due to expiration. This is important as we
can prevent production of food which goes into the rubbish bin.

Originality
The idea started when one of our members, Yong noticed that some biscuits she had in her
cupboard had gone expired for two months. We thought that we would be able to fix this problem if
we could be reminded of the expiration prior to the date. The project was thought of after we
discussed together to find a solution for it, and we believe that our invention is the first of its kind.
Description
We plan to start a system in which products manufactured in the industry are regulated with a
special barcode that details a specific expiration date. This would be printed alongside the
expiration date in text form in the packaging. The code is printed in blue and white, to avoid
confusion when scanning the usual black and white at checkout counters.

Suitable barcode colours. A typical barcode scanner.

The barcode scanner is connected to an Arduino system which can read the barcode as input and
translate it into a date. The Arduino system will send an output to a RFID (Radio-frequency
identification) transmitter. From the transmitter, the phone used by the customer will receive the
signal. The transmitter is compatible with phones with NFC (Near-field communication) chips,
which is a common thing found in modern phones. After receiving the signal, the phone will record
the expiry date data and send the user a notification a week before the expiry date of the food.

NFC chip in phones. RFID transmitter and receiver set.

Drawings

1. The barcode scanner scans

the expiry date code.

2. The code is sent to an

Arduino board to be
processed as text.

3. The RFID will send the

information to the customer’s
phone.

4. The expiry date information will be

stored and a notification will be sent
when expiration is near.