A Dietary Management System Using Radio-Frequency Identification Technology to Collect Information on Chinese Food Consumption: Development and Feasibility Study.

Xiaowei Xu,Li Hou,Jiao Li,Ju Wang,Zhen Guo

doi:10.2196/mhealth.7674

Abstract

BackgroundDietary management is important for personal health. However, it is challenging to record quantified food information in an efficient, accurate, and sustainable manner, particularly for the consumption of Chinese food.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to develop a dietary management system to record information on consumption of Chinese food, which can help in assessing individuals’ dietary intake and maintaining healthy eating behaviors. We proposed to use plates embedded with radio-frequency identification chips to carry Chinese foods and collect food consumption data.MethodsWe obtained food composition and nutrient (eg, carbohydrate, fat, fiber) data from the Chinese Recipe Database and China Food Composition Database. To test the feasibility of the dietary management system at a population level, we applied it to collect data on 489 Chinese foods that were consumed at lunchtime across 7 weeks by 10,528 individuals. To test individual-level output, we selected an individual participant with completed 20-day dietary data for analysis. We examined the system’s nutrient calculation performance by comparing the nutrient values of 3 selected Chinese dishes calculated by our method with the results of chemical measurements.ResultsWe collected the dietary intake for a group of 10,528 individuals aged from 20 to 40 years having lunch in a restaurant across 7 weeks. A total of 489 Chinese dishes were identified. We analyzed a specified customer’s diet recordings and broke his or her 20 lunch diet recordings down to ingredients and then to nutrient intake. We compared the nutrient value of a given Chinese dish (eg, garlic puree cooked pork leg) calculated by our method with the results of chemical measurements. The mean absolute percentage deviation showed that our method enabled collection of dietary intake for Chinese foods.ConclusionsThis preliminary study demonstrated the feasibility of radio-frequency identification–based dietary management for Chinese food consumption. In future, we will investigate factors such as preparation method, weight of food consumed, and auxiliary ingredients to improve dietary assessment accuracy.

Highlights

Dietary AssessmentDiet is an important risk factor or prevention-related factor for health management and disease treatment
In the dietary record approach, individuals must record each of the consumed foods in detail and their amounts measured by scales or estimated by models
We developed a dietary management system to collect information on Chinese food using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology

Summary

Introduction

Dietary AssessmentDiet is an important risk factor or prevention-related factor for health management and disease treatment. In the 24-hour dietary recall, individuals are required to remember the foods consumed in the past 24 hours. This is traditionally conducted by a trained interviewer in person or by telephone. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop a dietary management system to record information on consumption of Chinese food, which can help in assessing individuals’ dietary intake and maintaining healthy eating behaviors. To test the feasibility of the dietary management system at a population level, we applied it to collect data on 489 Chinese foods that were consumed at lunchtime across 7 weeks by 10,528 individuals. We compared the nutrient value of a given Chinese dish (eg, garlic puree cooked pork leg) calculated by our method with the results of chemical measurements. We will investigate factors such as preparation method, weight of food consumed, and auxiliary ingredients to improve dietary assessment accuracy

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion