Recipe Recommendation Engine for Nutritionally Balanced Processed Foods

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Users face difficulty in preparing dishes from bulk ingredients that satisfy a prescribed nutritional standard due to the burden of considering cooking methods and nutrient balances.

Innovation Solution

An information processing device that includes a storage unit for recipes, an acceptance unit for user input, and a presentation unit to provide recipes and nutritional guidance, ensuring dishes meet predefined nutritional standards.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the user prepares dishes from bulk ingredients while considering nutritional standards, then the nutritional quality of dishes is improved, but the complexity of operation increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenutritional standard complianceVSAvoidcooking preparation complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-calculates and stores recipe information that satisfies nutritional standards in advance. When a user designates bulk ingredients, the presentation unit retrieves pre-prepared recipes from storage, eliminating the need for users to perform complex nutritional calculations during cooking preparation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system automatically determines whether designated bulk ingredients can satisfy nutritional standards and presents appropriate recipes without requiring user intervention for nutritional analysis. The information processing device performs the nutritional assessment and recipe selection autonomously based on stored data.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Measurement precision

If the user analyzes each nutrient in bulk ingredients to satisfy nutritional standards, then the nutritional accuracy is improved, but the time required increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenutritional analysis accuracyVSAvoidrecipe preparation time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Nutritional information for various ingredients and bulk products is pre-calculated and stored in the storage unit before use. This allows the system to quickly retrieve and combine nutritional data without performing real-time analysis, significantly reducing the time required while maintaining accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses pre-stored recipe templates and nutritional data copies that have been previously validated. When presenting recipes, it retrieves copied information from storage rather than recalculating nutritional values, enabling fast response while preserving measurement precision.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

3Adaptability or versatility

If the system provides detailed recipe information for multiple dishes, then the versatility is improved, but the amount of information to process increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverecipe varietyVSAvoidinformation processing load
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments recipe information by bulk ingredient type and presents only the relevant recipes corresponding to the designated ingredient. This segmentation allows the storage unit to contain diverse recipe data while the presentation unit delivers only the necessary subset, reducing information processing load for the user.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP4679356A1Information processing device, information processing device control method, and program
Publication Date: 2026.01.14 NISSIN FOODS HOLDINGS CO LTD
  • EP4679356A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4679356A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4679356A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

This information processing device comprises: a storage means (e.g., a cooking database 41) that stores recipes for a plurality of dishes (e.g., chicken curry, tomato curry, and the like) which each include a processed food (e.g., semi-processed food, fully processed food (e.g., bulk curry), or the like) and foodstuffs (e.g., ingredients such as carrots and onions, seasonings, and the like) to be added to the processed food, and meet a prescribed nutritional standard (e.g., an upper limit and/or lower limit set for each nutrient); a reception means (e.g., a reception unit 31) that receives a specification of a processed food from a user terminal; and a presentation means that refers to the storage means and presents recipes for a plurality of dishes corresponding to the specified processed food.