Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App (FoodImage)

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Food Habits
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Natural Environment/Stress Management; Behavioral: Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 44
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Louisiana
    • Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, 70808
      • Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

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:

• Persons who are severely immune compromised
• Persons who are pregnant, as assessed by self-report
• Pennington employee

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Phase 2: RCT 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	Other: 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
Experimental: Phase 2: RCT Food Waste Reduction; 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: Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week,; A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and; Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns	Behavioral: Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste; 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 use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also be provided with the following: Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week,; A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and; Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns
No Intervention: Phase 1: Lab Testing (Visit 1, Day 0); In a laboratory kitchen, participants will use the following 3 methods to record and measure food waste during simulated shopping trip and kitchen clean-outs: the FoodImage App, Pen-and-paper Records, and Pen-and-paper records with a scale. Measurements will be collected by participants with all three methods, while lab personnel directly weigh foods to provide the criterion value.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Phase 1: Food Waste Error	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.	Visit 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Phase 2: Weight of All Household Waste	Difference in change in total weight of all sources of household food waste.	Baseline to Day 14

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Pennington Biomedical Research Center
• Collaborators: Ohio State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Corby K Martin, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Roe BE, Qi D, Beyl RA, Neubig KE, Martin CK, Apolzan JW. The Validity, Time Burden, and User Satisfaction of the FoodImage Smartphone App for Food Waste Measurement Versus Diaries: A Randomized Crossover Trial. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2020 Sep;160:104858. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104858. Epub 2020 May 21.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 26, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 7, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): March 31, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 3, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): October 13, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 17, 2024
• Last Verified: December 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: PBRC 2017-042

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No