Improving Food Consciousness - Opportunities of Smartphone Apps to Access Food Information

Abstract

Factors of food choice have an increasingly important role in the life of consumers. Information and codes on food packages are the most widespread standard to support the decision among the many types of food products. There should be mandatory information on packages that are governed by regulations. However, there can be other labels too that help consumers in choosing food products that match personal needs and concepts, including not only nutritional information but ethical factors as well. In our literature review, we overview the current trend of food labels and the results of research on the role of food information among consumers. The focus of this study is on smartphone applications and Augmented Reality (AR) as an advanced technology to display personalized food information. In this paper, we surveyed and analyzed the attitude of young food consumers due to their personal needs, the extent of attention to package information, and the most important factors when purchasing goods. We also surveyed the interest in smartphone applications that may support the decision. Our results suggest that there is a willingness to use an interactive application to gain personalized food information immediately. The majority of respondents would use an application that provides complex information service. Within the framework of the studied criteria for implementing a smartphone application using a database behind, we outline a theoretical infrastructural model too, for collecting and handling the necessary data. Our work has led us to conclude that there are opportunities of using smartphone applications to access food information and we suggest some solutions that may increase the Quality of Experience, such as AR.