Purina to take guesswork out of pet nutrition with IoT 'smart bowl'

Nestlé-owned pet food company Purina has created an app-connected smart bowl using Amazon Web Services IoT services to help dog and cat owners monitor nutrition for their pets.

Nestlé Oceania CEO Sandra Martinez told the AWS Summit Online the smart bowl, called the Purina Chekr, has been developed to remove the guesswork around feeding our four-legged friends.

“We’ve created a connected pet ecosystem through an app and a smart bowl that helps pet owners better understand their animal and ensure optimal nutrition, all from the palm of their hand,” she said on Tuesday.

“Our Purina Chekr smart bowl is managed by our Purina intelligence engine built on and powered by AWS IoT services.

"This system allows pet owners to feed the right food in the right portion every time.”

Martinez said that pet owners could use the accompanying Purina Chekr app to “input the breed, age, size and any diet considerations” of their pet to generate a “personalised food recommendation”.

Owners are then able to “set the feed and frequency” and monitor consumption through the smart bowl.

The app is also linked to Purina online store, allowing pet owners to “make a purchase directly and have it delivered to their door”.

“Pet Chekr tracks consumption and over time will make further recommendations of what food should be purchased,” Martinez said.

“It collects data on different days, checks consumption as well as pet activity levels, sleep and play to allow the system to provide even more specific information on what and how much [to feed them].”

It similarly also allows owners to type in other key information and receive health reminders for fleas, vaccination and grooming in order to “keep on top of their pet’s health needs” more generally.

Martinez said that while Covid meant owners were spending more time with their pets, there was limited data on what impact increased activity had on nutritional needs.

“How do we know how these factors affect pets? Are they still getting the right food and the right volume? And as more of us return to the workplace more often, how will our pets be affected?” she said.

Purina is planning to launch the app-connected smart bowl later this year, with data captured through the device to also be used to inform product development.

“Our data scientists continue to use these insights and examine everything from how different breeds eat… to how we can further improve our pets’ oral health,” Martinez said.