Smart kitchen safety is becoming standard in the smart home

The kitchen is the heart of the home. It is also its most overlooked safety risk.

Unattended cooking is the leading cause of house fires in the United States. It is not driven by faulty appliances or reckless behaviour, but by everyday distraction. A burner left on low. A moment of interruption. A routine that slips.

In Episode 57 of IoT Leaders, Akshita Iyer, Founder and CEO of Ome, explains why this risk has persisted for so long, and why it is now finally addressable. The conversation moves from a personal origin story to something much bigger: how smart kitchen safety is shifting from a retrofit solution into an emerging industry standard.

This is not about changing how people cook. It is about making safety invisible, automatic, and built into the way homes already work.

Listen or watch the full episode: From Shark Tank to Smart Home Game-Changer

Why unattended cooking is still the number one fire risk

Most kitchen fires are caused by stoves left on unintentionally. Not turned on by mistake but forgotten after normal use. The risk increases with fatigue, multitasking, children, pets, and ageing. Yet for decades, the only line of defence has been reactive detection. Smoke alarms sound once a problem has already escalated.

The failure is not awareness. It is timing.

As Akshita explains, insurance companies pay billions each year for losses tied to unattended cooking. Large appliance recalls have highlighted the issue further, but the underlying problem remains behavioural. Humans get distracted. Homes need to account for that reality.

What smart kitchen safety actually means

Smart kitchen safety uses connected sensors and automation to prevent stove-related fires before they start.

Instead of detecting smoke after ignition, smart systems monitor burner activity, duration, and context. When risk rises, they intervene. That intervention might be a notification, an automatic shut-off, or both.

The shift is from reaction to prevention. From alarms to outcomes. It defines whether technology is simply alerting humans to danger or actively reducing it.

How Ome’s smart knob works without changing behaviour

Ome’s design principle is deliberately simple: do not change how people cook.

The solution is a retrofit smart knob that replaces an existing stove control. From the user’s perspective, nothing changes. You still push and turn. There is no learning curve, no new routine, and no dependency on a phone to operate the appliance.

Behind the scenes, the knob detects which burner is active and how long it has been on. If a burner is left on beyond safe thresholds, the system can turn it off automatically and notify designated contacts.

One design choice is critical. The system allows remote shut off but never remote activation. A burner can only be turned on by someone physically present at the stove. This prevents misuse while preserving safety.

The result is protection that feels native, not imposed.

Why retrofits matter before standards catch up

Most households replace stoves every 10 to 20 years. Waiting for new appliances to solve today’s risks leaves millions of kitchens exposed.

Retrofit solutions bridge that gap. They allow safety to be added to the existing installed base, proving both demand and effectiveness. In Ome’s case, the retrofit approach has also done something more important. It has demonstrated that automated shut-off can be implemented safely.

That proof is what enables the next step.

How UL standards could make smart kitchen safety default

UL is an independent safety certification organisation whose standards are widely used across consumer appliances.

For decades, those standards focused on mechanical and electrical safety. They did not account for automated prevention or remote control in cooking appliances. That is now changing.

Akshita describes working directly with the UL standards committee responsible for surface cooking appliances. New language is emerging that recognises preventative automation, including the ability to safely turn a burner off when risk is detected.

This is a pivotal shift.

Standards do not mandate specific products, but they define what is acceptable. Once preventative control is recognised as safe, appliance manufacturers have a clear pathway to integrate it directly into future designs.

This is how smart kitchen safety moves from optional add-on to expected feature.

From retrofit to built-in safety at scale

The long-term opportunity is not selling individual devices. It is embedding prevention into the appliance itself.

Retrofits prove the model. Standards legitimise it. Manufacturers scale it.

Akshita frames this as the smart kitchen equivalent of what Nest did for thermostats. Not because every home must buy a smart knob, but because safety intelligence becomes part of the appliance lifecycle.

When that happens, the question shifts from “should I add safety?” to “why would this ship without it?”

How data and AI reduce risk without surveillance

Smart kitchen safety is not about watching people cook. It is about understanding patterns.

Over time, systems can learn what normal looks like for a household. Typical cooking durations. Usual times of day. Expected behaviour.

When something deviates from that pattern, the system can respond. A burner left on far longer than usual. Activity at an unusual hour. Repeated near-misses that indicate growing risk.

The intelligence is contextual, not intrusive. It does not need video or identity. It relies on behaviour signals that already exist.

As Akshita notes, this is where AI adds value. Not by replacing people, but by recognising risk faster and more consistently than humans can.

Why interoperability matters in the smart home

Kitchen safety does not exist in isolation.

A mature smart home coordinates across systems. Security modes, presence detection, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and appliance monitoring all inform one another.

Matter plays a key role here. By enabling interoperability between devices from different manufacturers, it allows safety logic to operate across the home rather than within a single app.

For example, a home set to “away” mode could automatically verify that the stove is off. A smoke alarm alert could trigger an immediate burner shut off before conditions escalate.

This coordination is what turns connected devices into a safety system.

Why smart kitchen safety is a category shift, not a feature

This episode is not about a single device. It is about a category coming of age.

Unattended cooking has always been a known risk. What has been missing is a solution that fits human behaviour, passes safety scrutiny, and scales through industry alignment.

Smart kitchen safety now meets those criteria.

It does not demand new habits. It does not wait for accidents. And with standards evolving, it is on a path to becoming normal rather than novel.

Listen to the full episode

If you are building connected home products, shaping safety standards, or exploring how IoT and AI can prevent risk rather than report it, this episode offers a practical, grounded blueprint.

Listen or watch Episode 57 of IoT Leaders: From Shark Tank to Smart Home Game-Changer