Heritagebites: A Socio-Technical Approach for Promoting Indigenous Food Systems

The decline in indigenous food consumption in India—accelerated by the emphasis of the Green Revolution on high-yield crops—has led to loss of biodiversity, reduced dietary diver-sity, and erosion of cultural food heritage. Although agricultural research recognises the nutri-tional and ecological value of traditional crops, technological interventions to raise consumer awareness remain limited. Meanwhile, AI-based food recommendation systems feature mainly global or calorie-centric cuisines, overlooking culturally significant Indian dishes and their sea-sonal logic. This paper proposes HeritageBites, a socio-technical framework developed through sec-ondary analysis that integrates cultural research with AI-based personalisation to promote in-digenous food and local ingredients through a digital platform. The framework demonstrates how technology can preserve culinary heritage, improve nutritional and seasonal awareness, and strengthen rural livelihoods by connecting traditional recipes with digital engagement. The findings of the study reveal that indigenous diets align with modern nutritional science and that digital promotion can promote cultural revival and sustainable market opportunities.