Real Agent Cases

Check whether leftovers are still safe to eat with Gemini Live

Posted
by Lance Ulanoff (TechRadar)
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.

Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.

Outcome

Known in his family as the food risk-taker, TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff pointed Gemini Live at a container and asked if chicken salad made on 8/1 was still good. Gemini said chicken salad should only be kept in the fridge three to four days, so since it was made on August 1st and it was August 9th it should be thrown out. He threw it away and made a PB&J instead.

Agent

Gemini Live

Prompt Original prompt

Exact prompt as published in the source.

Hey, this chicken salad was made on 8/1. Do you think it's still good?
Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Tell me whether this leftover food is still safe to eat, based on what it is and when it was made.

Fill in before running:
- What the food is: [DISH, main ingredients]
- When it was made or opened: [DATE]
- How it's been stored: [fridge / freezer / counter]
- Today's date: [DATE]

Rules:
- Use standard food-safety storage times and say which guideline you're using.
- Count the days and say clearly: keep or throw out.
- Don't judge safety from how it looks or smells alone.
- When in doubt, say throw it out.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- If it's close to the limit, suggest how to store it next time to last longer.

Output: One line: keep or throw out, with the days counted and the guideline.

You'll know it worked when: I get a clear answer based on dates, not guesswork.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/gemini/i-asked-gemini-if-my-chicken-salad-was-still-good-it-saved-itself-and-my-stomach

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