Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan;50(1):51-55.e1.
doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2016.09.008. Epub 2016 Oct 15.

Development and Validation of a Technology-Based System for Tracking and Reporting Dietary Intake at School Meals

Bradley M Appelhans  1 , Molly A Martin  2 , Marieli Guzman  3 , Tamara Olinger  3 , Andrew Pleasant  4 , Jennifer Cabe  4 , Lynda H Powell  5
Affiliations

Development and Validation of a Technology-Based System for Tracking and Reporting Dietary Intake at School Meals

Bradley M Appelhans et al. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: This report describes the development and validation of a technology-based system that integrates data on food choice, nutrition, and plate waste to generate feedback reports summarizing students' dietary intake at school meals.

Methods: Cafeteria staff used the system to document the school lunch choices of seventh-graders (n = 37) in an urban charter school for 5 months. Plate waste was assessed by research staff using a visual estimation method that was validated against directly weighed plate waste.

Results: Most food choices (97.1%) were correctly recorded through the system. Visual estimates of plate waste had excellent interrater reliability (r's ≥ .94) and agreement with direct measurements (ρ's ≥ .75). Plate waste assessment required approximately 10 s/tray. Fifty-four percent of parents received feedback reports consistently.

Conclusions and implications: The technology-based system enabled staff to monitor dietary intake accurately at school meals. The system could potentially inform lunch menu modifications aimed at reducing plate waste.

Keywords: National School Lunch Program; plate waste; prevention; school nutrition; technology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bland-Altman plots showing agreement between the quarter-waste method and manual weighing of plate waste. Plots show the mean and 95% confidence intervals of the differences between the two assessment methods across the distribution of scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Frederick CB, Snellman K, Putnam RD. Increasing socioeconomic disparities in adolescent obesity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2014;111:1338–1342. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Keita AD, Casazza K, Thomas O, Fernandez JR. Neighborhood-level disadvantage is associated with reduced dietary quality in children. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109:1612–1616. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kirkpatrick SI, Dodd KW, Reedy J, Krebs-Smith SM. Income and race/ethnicity are associated with adherence to food-based dietary guidance among US adults and children. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012;112:624–635. e626. - PMC - PubMed
    1. U.S. Department of Agriculture. [Accessed March 21, 2016];National School Lunch Program: Participation and lunches served (Data as of March 04, 2016) 2016 http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/slsummar.pdf.
    1. Cohen JF, Richardson S, Austin SB, Economos CD, Rimm EB. School lunch waste among middle school students: nutrients consumed and costs. Am J Prev Med. 2013;44:114–121. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types