Can China’s AI-powered food monitoring avoid US military-style meal complaints?

AdvertisementScienceChinaScienceCan China’s AI-powered food monitoring avoid US military-style meal complaints?

An integrated digital platform that tracks every step of the process is solving an age-old problem for Chinese forces

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Chao Kongin BeijingPublished: 8:00pm, 24 May 2026

Images of sparse meals aboard naval vessels deployed in the United States’ war on Iran are a reminder that keeping military forces supplied with adequate food has been a problem for thousands of years.

The photos came to light after a crew member from the USS Abraham Lincoln shared them with family in the US, sparking a dispute between personnel, their families and the Pentagon, along with complaints about inadequate food, despite official claims of more than 30 days’ supply on board.Meanwhile, according to a report published by the state-backed Science and Technology Daily on May 11, the People’s Armed Police Qinghai Corps in northwest China has turned to artificial intelligence for a solution.

An integrated digital platform was developed that included an AI food monitoring system which focused on granular control with every ingredient weighed, every inspection recorded and every transaction stored in a secure military cloud, the article said.

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Its most striking feature was an intelligent recognition scale built for military kitchens and food inspections, it said.

When ingredients are placed on the scale, on-board cameras identify food categories while recording weight, photographs and video footage. All data is instantly uploaded to cloud servers, creating a traceable record of procurement and inspection procedures.

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Supervisors located more than 500km (311 miles) away can remotely inspect daily food purchases, review acceptance records and replay the entire inspection process in real time, according to the article.

The platform tried to make every stage of food management visible, archived and remotely auditable, with six main sections and 56 modules that combined logistics, attendance, military training and personnel administration, it said.

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