Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App
Condition: Food Habits
Study type: Interventional

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 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.
    

Intervention name(s): Natural Environment/Stress Management; Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste
Intervention type(s): Other; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): 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 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
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: A subset of subjects will complete Phase I, which is the lab-based portion of the study, prior to the RCT.
Masking: Double (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other