Smartphone Apps for Food Purchase Choices: Scoping Review of Designs, Opportunities, and Challenges

Background: Smartphone apps can aid consumers in making healthier and more sustainable food purchases. However, there is still a limited understanding of the different app design approaches and their impact on food purchase choices. An overview of existing food purchase choice apps and an understanding of common challenges can help speed up effective future developments.Objective: We examined the academic literature on food purchase choice apps and provided an overview of the design characteristics, opportunities, and challenges for effective implementation. Thus, we contribute to an understanding of how technologies can effectively improve food purchase choice behavior and provide recommendations for future design efforts.Methods: Following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines, we considered peer-reviewed literature on food purchase choice apps within IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. We inductively coded and summarized design characteristics. Opportunities and challenges were addressed from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. From the quantitative perspective, we coded and summarized outcomes of comparative evaluation trials. From the qualitative perspective, we performed a qualitative content analysis of commonly discussed opportunities and challenges.Results: We retrieved 55 articles, identified 46 unique apps, and grouped them into 5 distinct app types. Each app type supports a specific purchase choice stage and shares a common functional design. Most apps support the product selection stage (selection apps; 27/46, 59%), commonly by scanning the barcode and displaying a nutritional rating. In total, 73% (8/11) of the evaluation trials reported significant findings and indicated the potential of food purchase choice apps to support behavior change. However, relatively few evaluations covered the selection app type, and these studies showed mixed results. We found a common opportunity in apps contributing to learning (knowledge gain), whereas infrequent engagement presents a common challenge. The latter was associated with perceived burden of use, trust, and performance as well as with learning. In addition, there were technical challenges in establishing comprehensive product information databases or achieving performance accuracy with advanced identification methods such as image recognition.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that designs of food purchase choice apps do not encourage repeated use or long-term adoption, compromising the effectiveness of behavior change through nudging. However, we found that smartphone apps can enhance learning, which plays an important role in behavior change. Compared with nudging as a mechanism for behavior change, this mechanism is less dependent on continued use. We argue that designs that optimize for learning within each interaction have a better chance of achieving behavior change. This review concludes with design recommendations, suggesting that food purchase choice app designers anticipate the possibility of early abandonment as part of their design process and design apps that optimize the learning experience

Transmission de la zéaralénone, du déoxynivalénol et de leurs dérivés de la truie au porcelet pendant la lactation avec ou sans décontaminant

International audienceThis study evaluated effects of an algae-clay-based mycotoxin decontaminant on levels of zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and their derivatives in the colostrum, milk, and serum of sows, as well as in the serum of weaned piglets after maternal mycotoxin exposure from the last week of gestation to weaning (26 days). To this end, 15 sows splited into three groups (n = 5) were fed diets naturally contaminated with 100 (LoZEN) or 300 (HiZEN) µg/kg ZEN, with or without an algae-clay-based mycotoxin decontaminant in the highly contaminated diet. All diets contained 250 µg/kg DON. Dietary treatments did not influence the performance of the sows and piglets. Only α-ZEL significantly increased in the colostrum of sows fed the HiZEN diet, and this increase was even higher in the colostrum of the sows fed the HiZEN diet supplemented with the test decontaminant. However, no differences in milk mycotoxin levels were observed at weaning. The highest levels of ZEN, α-ZEL, and β-ZEL were observed in the serum of sows fed the HiZEN diet. When the HiZEN diet was supplemented with the tested algae-clay-based mycotoxin decontaminant, levels of ZEN and its metabolites were significantly decreased in the serum of sows. Although all sows were fed the same levels of DON, the serum level of de-epoxy-DON increased only in the serum of piglets from the sows fed a diet with the non-supplemented HiZEN diet. In conclusion, the tested algae-clay-based mycotoxin decontaminant can decrease levels of ZEN and its metabolites in the serum of sows and the level of de-DON in the serum of piglets.Les effets délétères des mycotoxines sur la santé et les performances des porcs ont largement été démontrés. Parmi les 400 mycotoxines identifiées le déoxynivalénol (DON) et la zéaralénone (ZEN) sont les plus étudiés. Ainsi, en 2006, la Commission européenne a défini des niveaux maximaux de recommandations concernant la présence de DON et de ZEN dans les produits destinés à l’alimentation des porcs (2006/576/CE), respectivement à 900 et 250 μg/kg pour les porcs charcutiers. En réalité, l’exposition chronique à de faibles doses de mycotoxines est fréquente, et elle peut se dérouler par transfert placentaire ou via le lait. Une étude récente a démontré que le DON, la ZEN et leurs métabolites peuvent être quantifiés dans le colostrum, le lait et le sérum de truies nourries avec un aliment contenant 250 μg/kg de DON et 100 ou 300 μg/kg de ZEN (de Grave et al., 2021). L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer l’efficacité d’un décontaminant (AC) à base de la technologie Algoclay pour réduire la transmission de DON et ZEN de la truie aux porcelets pendant la dernière semaine de gestation et la lactation, incorporé dans un aliment naturellement contaminé avec 250 μg/kg de DON et 300 μg/kg de ZEN. La technologie Algoclay associe de l’argile montmorillonite et des polysaccharides d’ulves (Chlorophyceae)