Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Behavioral: Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste
Other: Natural Environment/Stress Management

Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to test the use of a smartphone app as a way to measure food waste.

Investigators propose to improve the accuracy and convenience of household food waste measurement so that consumer food waste program evaluations yield more power, less bias, less measurement error, and greater representation of targeted populations.

Detailed Description: Investigators will improve measurement via the development of the FoodImage smartphone app, a technology leveraging the investigators' expertise in creating and deploying apps to measure food intake and deliver nutritional interventions in free-living household conditions. Investigators will validate the app against weighed waste in a controlled laboratory setting.

The study will yield an app ready for future study deployment while analyses of the data will inform rapidly evolving policy discussions concerning optimal approaches to reduce food waste. These outcomes align with program priorities to understand the economics of food waste and to use behavioral economics to address consumption behavior.

Specific objectives include:

1. Development of FoodImage, a smartphone app that measures household food waste and food-waste-related behaviors,

2. Assess differences in the accuracy and time burden of measurements taken with the FoodImage app versus two current household food waste measurement approaches (a pen-and-paper diary, and a pen-and-paper diary with a scale).

3. Use the FoodImage app in a pilot randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of reducing household food waste through behavioral nudges in the form of personalized feedback about food waste levels and household-specific reduction goals.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

age 18-65 years
body mass index 18.5 - 50 kg/m2, based on self-reported height and weight
Shops for groceries
Conducts some of the food shopping and food preparation for their household
Be willing to do food shopping for the study (if necessary)
Have an iPhone and an operable Apple ID, password, and email address and is willing to use these to collect data during the study, acknowledging that data usage, and associated charges, are a result of study participation
Be willing to complete all study procedures corresponding to their randomization group

Exclusion Criteria

In addition to those who do not meet inclusion criteria, subjects who meet any of the following criteria will be excluded from enrollment:

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Phase 2: RCT Food Waste Reduction	Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste	Phase 2 will occur in participants' natural environment (free-living conditions). Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges. Participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also be provided with the following: 1. Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week, 2. A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and 3. Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns
Phase 2: RCT Stress Management	Natural Environment/Stress Management	Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges in free-living conditions. Participants will capture baseline data for 4-7 days. After a 1-week break, participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also receive information on stress management

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Phase 1: Food Waste Error	Visit 1	Participant estimations of food waste using the following three experimental methods as compared to the criterion value of weighed waste collected by study staff: 1) the FoodImage App (FoodImage app estimates minus the criterion value of lab personnel measured weighed food waste), 2) pen and paper diary with visual estimation of food amounts (pen and paper estimates minus the criterion value), and 3) pen and paper diary with a scale (pen and paper dairy accompanied by a scale minus directly weighed foods by lab personnel). All food values are in grams. The error values noted here represent less accurate estimates the further away they are from zero, either in the positive or negative direction. There are no min and max values to error measures.

Secondary Outcome Measures