The world wastes well in excess of four million tones of food and drink each year. To combat this problem, Sainsbury's has joined up with Google to create Food Rescue, an online waste-prevention programme. It will be available to mobiles, and will offer recipe suggestions for the items one has remaining in one's fridge or cupboards. The idea is that the suggestions will make food items more attractive again, and consequently prevent them being wasted, saving the user money. According to the Sainsbury's, the average family in the United Kingdom loses about £60 a month on wasted food. Food Rescue will display users' savings in a league-table format across the UK. There are more than 1,200 recipes in the Food Rescue service that will be offered following the ingredients being spoken or typed in by the user. "Using our voice search technology, the Food Rescue tool allows Sainsbury's customers to use up the food that they might otherwise throw away. Simply say what ingredients you have left and discover simple inspirational recipes,” said Indy Saha, director of creative strategy at Google. "Whether you are on the way home thinking about what's for dinner, at the supermarket lacking inspiration or in the kitchen, the tool will help you save and get better value for money by not wasting food." © 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Peter Donnelly To sign up to ESM’s weekly e-zine newsletter, send an email with the subject: ‘Subscribe ESM news’ to editorial@esmmagazine.com