Inventory of types of consumer-generated food preparation data and data collection methodologies: D6.1

Klepacz, Naomi, Maringer, Marcus, Ekman, Susanne, Norman, Anne, Geelen, Anouk and Raats, Monique (2018) Inventory of types of consumer-generated food preparation data and data collection methodologies: D6.1 European Commission 19pp.

Abstract

The RICHFIELDS project aims to design a Research Infrastructure (RICHFIELDS RI) for the collection, integration, processing and sharing of consumer-generated data as it relates to food behaviour and lifestyle determinants. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to explore the range of consumer-generated data currently available, in terms of its type and quality.This document reports a scoping exercise to examine the breadth of domestic food preparation apps currently available in the marketplace that collect consumer-generated data related to food preparation and create an inventory of prototypical examples of these applications. It additionally aimed to test the feasibility of applying the Quality Criteria set outin Deliverable 6.3 for the classification of apps, and other related ICT, namely descriptive, scientific, legal and technical characteristics. To this end, a search was made of UK based retailers of mobile applications, or apps. Apps arising from this search were then classified according to a set definition of domestic food preparation and a typology of available apps was created.This report highlights the breadth of domestic food preparation apps that collect consumergenerated data currently available in the marketplace and the range of data collected by these apps. The search protocol identified a multitude of available apps. These search results were narrowed to a final list of 54 prototypical apps that represent those available in the current marketplace. These prototypical apps can be said to fulfil three main user motivations. That is, to gain ‘knowledge and understanding’, gain assistance with ‘meal preparation and cooking’, and the ‘planning and organisation’ of meals, foods and meal plans. Within the category of ‘knowledge and understanding’, the primary user behaviour was that of ‘searching for information’ and/or the ‘sharing of knowledge and experience’ with others. Many domestic food preparation apps – such as a recipe database app (e.g., Paprika Recipe manager) - provide the consumer with the ability to search for information by either within pre-determined categories (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner) or by entering a search term. A common feature of this category of apps is also to allow the consumer with the ability to share information with others, such as by posting to social media or emailing the information to another. The feasibility for the application of the quality criteria set out in Deliverable 6.3 was tested, and in many cases, the level of detail necessary to fulfil these criteria was not publically available. In many cases, the specificity of these quality criteria did not afford the flexibility necessary for the sufficient categorisation of these apps according to these criteria. It is recommended that these quality criteria are reviewed in line with the finding of this exercise and the classification of consumer-generated data at an app level be reconsidered.Legal and technical quality criteria fields were completed for apps where information was available. However, as stated above this information was not publically available in all cases. This raises an interesting ethical issue as regards the inclusion of apps and/or data into the RICHFIELDS RI where consumers do not have ready access to the terms and conditions of use. When the information was publically available, the terms and conditions were often difficult to interpret by researchers without a legal and technical background.

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Contributors

Author: Naomi Klepacz

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