Researchers develop tool to simplify nutritional tracking of Indian meals

Tracking macros in a typical Indian meal may soon get a lot simpler. Researchers at the International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) are building a system that can automatically identify food items on a plate, a tool that could prove useful for the health‑conscious.

The team from the institute’s Centre for Visual Information Technology pointed out that an Indian plate usually includes several dishes, and in many cases, they are mixed together. This makes it difficult to determine nutritional values or even distinctly identify what’s on the plate.

Most existing food‑tracking apps, they noted, are designed keeping the western eating habits in mind. That leaves a significant gap when it comes to the Indian thali. The IIIT-H system, called the Zero Shot Solution, uses an overhead camera in a kiosk to detect food regions and apply retrieval‑based prototype matching. It then analyses the meal and offers an approximate calorie count while the model works, researchers are refining it to address better challenges such as estimating proportions and accounting for water content.

The institute is also working on an “Indian food map”. The move is an attempt to capture the diversity of the country’s cuisine through its ingredients, flavours, spices and regional cooking methods.