Do You Want Your Food Storage Connected to Alexa?

In this video, Matt reacts to this Kickstarter campaign for a vacuum-sealed food storage container. It also connects to Amazon’s Alexa. Will anyone really want this or is this another dud product idea?

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Video Transcript: 

Product Promo Video:

Narrator: These avocados will stay fresh for about a day, but these avocados will stay fresh for a lot longer. That’s because they’re stored with Silo, a new way to keep your food fresh for longer. Why is it so important because for most of us buying food feels like this. 

*Woman throwing food in the trashcan* 

Silo Founder: I just got fed up with how much food I was throwing away. I knew there had to be a better way to keep it so I started looking into vacuum storage. I wanted something fast and easy because I hate wasting time in the kitchen but even the best vacuum sales out there were just too cumbersome to be used every day. And then I had an idea.

Narrator: Silo is a completely new approach to household food storage. Just put your food in one of our BPA-free containers and press it down on the base. After a few seconds, the container is perfectly sealed air away from your food. 

Silo Founder: See air is great for people but not so great for food. Oxidation and aerobic microorganisms are the main reasons your food begins to spoil. Taking the air slows all of that down.

Narrator:  With Silo your food is vacuum-sealed until you’re ready to eat. Listen to this, that’s air rushing back in. That’s the sound of freshness. Even your dog will enjoy fresh food for longer. And it’s quick and easy to use even when your hands are full. When you’re finished Silo gets out of your way until the next time you need it, freeing up valuable counter space. But that’s just the beginning. 

Silo Founder: Silo is so much more than extending freshness, it’s about keeping track of your food. 

Narrator: Silo comes with Alexa built-in so you can manage your food using voice commands. “I detected new contents in the container, please state the food inside.” “Strawberries.” “Strawberries have been added to your inventory. They should be fresh for at least a week.” Silo keeps track of when your food was stored and if it’s still good. “Alexa, is the chicken still okay?” “The chicken should be good for at least 5 more days.” Since Silo automatically weighs your food it always knows how much you have left and will let you know when it’s time to pick up more. “Alexa, how much coffee is left?” “You have 2 ounces of coffee. That should last you for a week.” With Silo your food lasts longer so you waste less and enjoy it more.

Matt’s Review:

The Silo Food Saver so initially I really thought the idea was pretty cool. You know you have Tupperware-like containers that you just put on top of the base. It sucks the air out, it saves the food. I still think that’s a pretty cool idea. It looks like the price is not too crazy for it. So as far as they got with that I think it’s a good idea. I also don’t like brown avocados and you never eat a whole avocado at once. At least I typically don’t, so I always have half an avocado that I now have to eat whether I want to or not before it turns brown. So this I think it’s a cool idea and definitely could be used for other food. I’m not probably gonna vacuum seal my dog’s food, my dog doesn’t seem to be too picky about her food. But for us for the people’s food I think it’s a good idea.

They lost me a little bit when, you know, it’s connected to Alexa, and you’re gonna ask Alexa if the chicken’s good. Well, I’m not sure I trust Alexa to tell me if the chicken’s good. I’d rather open it and smell it cause I’m not gonna eat it just cause Alexa told me to and then I’m the one in the bathroom all night if it turns out Alexa got it wrong. So I think this is a case of maybe over-complicating what is a simple straightforward cool-looking product with more tech than it needs. But you know maybe some other people are gonna enjoy the fact that it’s, you know, voice-controlled and it’s a scale as well and does other things. I would be happy to have a cheaper version that’s just the vacuum sealer with the Tupperware containers if that was an option. I might even buy it anyway if I liked it enough anyway, and just not use the other tech. But yeah I think this is a cool idea and it looks like they raised 1.4 million dollars out of their initial 80,000 dollar goal so clearly I’m not the only one that thinks this is a good idea. So I’ll be interested to see if they pull it off and this becomes something that I, you know, see at my local target at some point.