Indian health and wellness startup HealthifyMe has introduced an AI-powered feature that recognizes Indian food from photos to record calories, allowing users to track their meal intake more efficiently.
Tracking down Indian foods through photos is difficult as there is a huge variety of cuisines. Also, a number of people eat on a plate called… Thali In Hindi, which contains different parts of different food items. The model should recognize all of that as well as portion sizes.
HealthifyMe’s newest feature, called Snap, allows users to take photos of their meals and try to identify the nutrients captured within the frame. Alternatively, users can also grant access to their photo gallery, and the app automatically scans food photos. Users can review those photos and the food items inside them later. This allows users to take photos from their cameras and deal with recording calories later.
Regarding privacy, the company says that the model on the device detects images of food and sends them to servers to identify specific dishes. The company also states that its gallery-based model works better as it has more time to identify nutrients compared to the option of taking photos of your meal to identify them.
Image credits: Healthyfeme
If the model detects multiple items in the photo, Snap will ask you to tap an item and add it to your calorie tracking. Users will see an adjustable rectangular box to focus on different items.
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Snap HealthifyMe attempts to identify foods on your plate Image credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch
Tushar Vashisht, co-founder and CEO of HealthifyMe, told TechCrunch that the company started as a food tracking app about 11 years ago, and that remains the primary use case for its free users.
“Food tracking is sometimes difficult to deal with because you have to actually type and remember to log the food. So we wanted to increase retention and engagement with a feature like Snap.
The startup has tried to implement image-based food recognition over the years, but the availability of better generative AI models made it easier to create Snap, Vashisht said. The company said the feature has currently been trained to recognize 150,000 Indian food items.
![HealthifyMe privacy claim about photo tracking](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/image-2.png?w=380)
Image credits: Healthyfeme
Healthifyme claims to offer 60-70% accuracy when it comes to automatic food recognition. The company said that even if the model doesn’t identify the food item correctly, users will still get suggestions about what the item might be. The company has human reviewers who look at false confessions and correct them. Additionally, users can manually flag these misidentified images to improve the model. Vashisht confirmed that he is confident that the accuracy of the model will reach more than 80% within the next month.
It is worth noting that HealthifyMe is not alone in the race, as other companies are also working on food recognition using artificial intelligence. Samsung’s meal planning platform Samsung Food plans to introduce this feature next year. Former Google Lens engineer Wade Norris’ startup Snapcalory is also working on the same problem with backing from Y-Combinator, Index Ventures, and Accel.
In the next few weeks, HealthifyMe aims to provide more options for users to log food. With the launch of Snap, it allows users to send photos to HealthifyMe WhatsApp or tag them with an X with a photo of food. The company is working on the voice input feature along with improving its existing AI-powered assistant, Ria.
HealthifyMe, which has raised more than $130 million in capital to date from investors such as LeapFrog Ventures and Khosla Ventures, has a basic paid plan starting at $4.80 (US$399) per month that gives users access to its AI-powered fitness and nutrition assistant and meals. Planning, healthy recipes. The company also offers paid plans starting from USD 48 per month (INR 4,000) with features like AI-based meal planner, nutrition and fitness coaches, and smart scale.
Higher tiers of Professional plans have more benefits such as multiple doctor consultations, metabolic panel tests, and continuous glucose monitors (CGM). The company said it has more than 200,000 users as subscribers, nearly 40% of whom pay for the Pro plan.
In 2020, HealthifyMe partnered with an Indian food delivery service Swiggy for healthy meal planning and restaurants. The company is already in talks with several food and grocery services that could benefit from its technology.