Development and validation of a web application to collect food supply data associated with their nutritional composition and environmental impacts

Abstract

Measuring what people eat is a major methodological challenge. We developed and validated a new web-based method to record actual food supply data that would be less time consuming than the original method (i.e., food supply diary). Through the COD-Appro web application, participants can enter their food supplies by selecting a food item from a list based on items included in French food databases; thus automatically associated with nutrient composition and environmental impacts data. We recruited 102 participants who used COD-Appro during one month, among which 30 also used a classical paper-based food supply diary to be able to compare the two methods. A feedback questionnaire was completed by all the participants. The two methods showed no difference between the price and the quantity of food purchases when compared by food groups (n = 10) which confirms that the new method was robust compared to the original method. In addition, participants reported good usability of the COD-Appro web application and its use saved a considerable amount of time to the experimenters by integrating data entry and pairing with food databases (nutrient composition and environmental impacts) into the data collection step performed by the participants themselves.

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  Web-based food supply data collection

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  Association with nutrient composition and environmental impacts

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  External validity compared to original method (i.e., food supply diary)