Free Living Food Waste Management and Diet Quality Improvement Using Smart Intervention and Food Image Application

Not Applicable

Active, not recruiting

• Conditions: Diet, Healthy
• Interventions: Other: Smart Intervention for Food Waste Management and Replacing current diet with Fruits and Vegetables; Other: Smart Intervention for Stress Managment

• Registration Number: NCT05061888
• Lead Sponsor: Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Brief Summary

The primary aim of this study is to reduce household food waste and improve individual nutrition. This will be achieved using the FoodImageTM smartphone app 1, a novel method for measuring household food acquisition, food intake, and food waste decisions, to assess the efficacy of a smart intervention that targets food waste reduction and diet quality improvement. The intervention is designed to improve nutrition by offsetting intake of less nutritious foods with increased fresh fruit and vegetable (FV) intake while simultaneously reducing household food waste via strategies tailored to participating households.

Detailed Description

Data collected will be used to:

1. Test the effects of free FV provision on: (a) household food waste levels, (b) total FV acquisition (free FV provision plus purchases post-intervention vs. pre-intervention FV purchases), and (c) the consumption of FV (Food Patterns Equivalents Database, FPED). We hypothesize that free FV provision will increase food waste, total FV acquisition, and diet quality (increase the Healthy Eating Index \[HEI\]). We will test these hypotheses by comparing baseline and follow-up data from participants randomly assigned to the control condition, which features free FV provision and a placebo (stress management) intervention not focused on food waste. Exploratory analyses will examine the effects on dietary energy intake and if the freely provided FV replace non-FV foods in the baseline diet.

2. Test if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly reduces post-intervention food waste compared to the control group while increasing FV acquisition and consumption compared to pre-intervention baseline. We hypothesize that this smart intervention will increase total FV acquisition and FV consumption compared to baseline, and these increases are not expected to differ significantly from control. It is further hypothesized that those receiving the smart intervention will significantly reduce food waste compared to controls. Exploratory analyses will examine the extent to which the smart intervention had the intended effect of replacing less healthy foods with FV consumption.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-08-23
• Study First Submitted: 2021-09-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-09-20
• Study First Posted: 2021-09-30
• Primary Completion: 2022-11-23
• Status Verified: 2025-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-02-03
• Last Update Posted: 2025-02-04
• Study Completion: 2025-12-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 46

Inclusion Criteria

• Male or female, age 18-62 years
• Body mass index (BMI) 18.5 - 50 kg/m2, based on self-reported height and weight
• Ownership of an iPhone, which the participant is willing to use for the study
• Access to Apple ID, password, and email address and willing to use them in the course of the study
• Performs a majority of household food shopping and preparation
• If children are present in household, all children are between 6-18 years
• Able to meet the schedule demands for the study

Exclusion Criteria

• Not able to use an iPhone
• Refusal or unable to use the smartphone app to collect data in free-living conditions
• Households that purchase groceries less than 1 time per week
• More than 2 children living in the household
• Pennington Biomedical Research Center employee
• Unwilling to sign consent to use web screener questions for data set and analysis.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Food Waste Intervention Group	Smart Intervention for Food Waste Management and Replacing current diet with Fruits and Vegetables	This group will receive an intervention on food waste management and fruit and vegetable replacement to increase diet quality while avoiding an increase in calories. Both groups will obtain free fruit and vegetable boxes and will use the FoodImage app to record food acquisition (Shop), food prep (Prep), intake (Eat) and waste (Toss) for approximately 3 (24 hour) days; ideally including 1 weekend date.
Stress Management Control Group	Smart Intervention for Stress Managment	This group will receive an intervention on Stress Management and will be intensity matched to the treatment group. Both groups will obtain free fruit and vegetable boxes and will use FoodImage to record food acquisition (Shop), food prep (Prep), intake (Eat) and waste (Toss) for approximately 3 (24 hour) days; ideally including 1 weekend date.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Determine if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly reduces household level food waste, measured in grams, compared to a control intervention.	4 weeks	We will test if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly reduces food waste over 4 weeks compared to a control (stress management) intervention. Both interventions include FV provision. Food waste will be measured with the FoodImage app. Food waste will be quantified as total grams of food waste.
The impact of free FV provision on levels of household food waste, measured in grams.	4 weeks	We will test if levels of household food waste change significantly over 4 weeks among participants randomized to the control condition, which includes free FV provision and a placebo (stress management) intervention not focused on food waste. Food waste will be measured with the FoodImage app. Food waste will be quantified as total grams of food waste.
The impact of free FV provision on household FV intake.	4 weeks	We will test if levels of household FV intake change significantly over 4 weeks among participants randomized to the control condition, which includes free FV provision and a placebo (stress management) intervention not focused on food waste. FV intake will be measured with the FoodImage app. FV intake will be quantified as the total number of servings of FV eaten, with FV servings defined by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).
The impact of free FV provision on levels of household food waste, measured in calories.	4 weeks	We will test if levels of household food waste change significantly over 4 weeks among participants randomized to the control condition, which includes free FV provision and a placebo (stress management) intervention not focused on food waste. Food waste will be measured with the FoodImage app. Food waste will be quantified as total calories of food waste.
The impact of free FV provision on household FV acquisition.	4 weeks	We will test if levels of household FV acquisition change significantly over 4 weeks among participants randomized to the control condition, which includes free FV provision and a placebo (stress management) intervention not focused on food waste. FV acquisition will be measured with the FoodImage app. FV acquisition will be quantified as the total number of servings of FV acquired by the household, with FV servings defined by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).
Determine if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly increases FV acquisition compared to pre-intervention baseline.	4 weeks	We will test if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly increases FV acquisition over 4 weeks. The intervention includes free provision of FV. FV acquisition will be measured with the FoodImage app. FV acquisition will be quantified as the total number of servings of FV acquired by the household, with FV servings defined by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).
Determine if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly increases FV intake compared to pre-intervention baseline.	4 weeks	We will test if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly increases FV intake over 4 weeks. The intervention includes free provision of FV. FV intake will be measured with the FoodImage app. FV intake will be quantified as the total number of servings of FV eaten, with FV servings defined by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED).
Determine if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly reduces household level food waste, measured in calories, compared to a control intervention.	4 weeks	We will test if a smart intervention to reduce food waste and replace less healthy foods with FV significantly reduces food waste over 4 weeks compared to a control (stress management) intervention. Both interventions include FV provision. Food waste will be measured with the FoodImage app. Food waste will be quantified as total calories of food waste.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Pennington Biomedical Research Center; 🇺🇸 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States