The tool, which has been developed between the University College Cork and University College Dublin, marks Ireland’s first publicly-accessible dietary online assessment tool and potentially represents the future of large-scale dietary reporting.
Speaking to NutraIngredients, Dr Claire Timon, lead author of the research said the Foodbook24 tool, with some adaptations, could work in other countries in Europe and beyond.
“The whole idea really of the tool is to further nutrition surveillance,” she told us.
Ireland, like a number of countries in Europe, currently carries out major nationial dietary surveys every 10 or so years, which are expensive to run, partly because individuals have to be recruited.
The new web-based survey, said doctor Timon, is cheaper to run than these traditional surveys and she says also has other advantages.
“The nice thing about a web-based tool is it might entice individuals to be honest. One might get more reflective insights.
“They are not meeting a person, and generally there is a bias if you are sitting in front of a dietician you might not be as honest as you should be.”
However, doctor Timon pointed out there may still be a demand for the traditional, paper-based surveys, because “there is a need for detailed information”.
But she said the web-based tool could be used to collect rolling data between the 10-year intervals of the traditional surveys.
How the tool works
The tool works by individuals signing up, then being asked to recall from memory all foods and drinks they consumed over the previous day and then to complete a questionnaire on their health and behaviour.
Users can then provide more detailed information on these meals with portion size pictures to assist them in quantifying how much they ate.
The data is then processed by experienced nutritionists and a personalised feedback report is generated which highlights the areas that users might want to make changes in their current dietary habits.
It also shows how close they are or not to meeting the current dietary recommendations.
Timon pointed out that the tool was distinct from other food tracker apps.
“Foodbook24 has been designed specifically to further knowledge in the area of national nutritional surveillance.,” she told us.
“The nutrient information for all of the food and drinks listed in the system has been derived from scientifically correct food composition tables to give the most accurate nutrient output possible.”
Study details
The virtues of the tool have been tested in a study comparing nutrition and food intakes from those using Foodbook24 to those using a traditional interview-led method.
Timon and colleagues concluded that Foodbook24 compared well to the current interviewer-led method, but the tool would need further development to iron out some discrepancies in the reporting.
Outlining the benefits of Foodbook24, the study concludes: “The potential of remote access and freedom to complete recalls at the user’s leisure renders Foodbook24 an attractive alternative to face-to-face consultations.
“The results of this study highlight the potential of Foodbook24 as a viable alternative to traditional dietary assessment methods for researchers in Ireland.”
Source: Nutrients
Published online, Open Access, doi: 10.3390/nu9050425
"Comparison of a Web-Based 24-h Dietary Recall Tool (Foodbook24) to an Interviewer-Led 24-h Dietary Recall"~
Authors: Claire M. Timon, et al