Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Two types of innovations catch my attention when I browse the floor at CESthe world’s largest exhibition of future technologies. A type is one that impresses with its impressive engineering – for example, a travel mug that grinds and brews cold brew coffee in the same container. The other is less mind-boggling but function-driven, solving an age-old problem or everyday nuisance.
GE Profile’s new smart refrigerator, with a built-in grocery barcode scanner, is clearly part of the latter cohort. While the scanner isn’t a feature that raises questions about how it was achieved, it does make us wonder why it took so long for someone to introduce it.
I had the opportunity to play with the smart refrigerator during a private preview in Las Vegas. What stood out was the ease of use of the barcode scanner and its usefulness for tracking weekly errands and streamlining the list-making and grocery shopping experience.
How it works
The scanner system recognizes more than 4 million grocery and household products.
A simple barcode reader is mounted near the water dispenser in the refrigerator’s small central display, recognizing more than 4 million common groceries and household products. When you run out of your favorite brand of coffee beans, trash bags, or 2% milk, simply scan the barcode, and the item is then added to your weekly shopping list, accessible via the mobile app, of course.
Even foods that don’t have a barcode can be added using a voice command. Just turn on the refrigerator and say something like, “Add Granny Smith apples to the grocery list.” Boom, it’s there.
I tried it. Even in the noisy and busy showroom, the refrigerator heard me and acted dutifully.
You can scan and order groceries right from your fridge
Scanned items go directly to a grocery list, accessible from your phone or tablet.
To go further, GE Profile has partnered with Instacart. If you’re shopping online, you can either make an individual purchase or order your entire list directly from the fridge or through your mobile device.
The barcode scanner is universally applicable, even if you don’t use Instacart. The scanning process takes literally seconds, which is much faster than creating a manual list. Currently, the brand works with a handful of national retailers through Instacart. The fridge scans more than 4 million household products – not just groceries – and more will be added in system updates.
A complete smart refrigerator with many features
The scanner feature is what caught my attention, but GE Profile’s new refrigerator has other impressive innovative features, including a top-down camera that lets you view your produce drawers and take inventory from anywhere. It’s a handy feature, sure, but one we saw in front refrigerators.
A top-down camera shows you the contents of your products in real time. A handy feature, but by no means an industry first.
Also new is a recipe generator that suggests ideas based on the foods in your fridge. Take a photo of the contents and the central screen displays recipe ideas for lunch or dinner. You can instantly add missing ingredients for a given recipe to your grocery list.
For easier hydration, the refrigerator features hands-free autofill. Using sensors in the refrigerator’s dispenser, it dispenses the precise amount of filtered water for the given container, then stops. You are free to walk away while the glass or bottle fills.
Pricing and availability
The smart refrigerator will be available from April.
The 4 French Door Smart Refrigerator with Kitchen Assistant will be available in standard-depth and counter-depth models starting in April 2026, with a suggested MSRP of $4,899.
