A 17-year-old from Virginia, Smit Kothari, has launched Grocery Genius, a free AI-powered website designed to reduce household food waste and cut grocery spending by helping people use ingredients they already have. The tool matters at a time when many families are looking for ways to stretch food budgets and minimise waste, offering a simple, accessible way to plan meals around existing pantry stock rather than buying more.

The platform generates custom recipes based on ingredients users already have at home, while also tracking pantry inventory, providing nutrition information and assigning health grades to meals. Kothari says he plans to keep refining the site using user feedback and intends to continue developing it once he starts college next year.