Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App (FoodImage)

November 8, 2022 updated by: Corby K. Martin, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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

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 current household food waste measurement approaches (a pen-and-paper diary)
  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

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

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

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

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

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Phase 1: Lab Testing (Visit 1, Day 0)
Participants will test the FoodImage App and Pen-and-paper Records with in a Laboratory Kitchen. Participants will use the FoodImage app and food records to measure food waste during simulated shopping trip and kitchen clean-out. Measurements will be collected by participants with both methods while lab personnel directly weigh foods to provide the criterion value.
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
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:

  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

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:

  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

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Phase 1: Food waste error
Time Frame: Lab Test, average of 4 hours at Visit 1
Determining if the error from the FoodImage app is smaller than error from the pen-and-paper records.
Lab Test, average of 4 hours at Visit 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Corby K Martin, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

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)

November 10, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 8, 2022

Last Verified

November 1, 2022

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

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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