FoodChum App | Estherway

About

Despite over 70% of Australians being motivated to reduce food waste, an alarming $2,500 worth of food per household is still thrown away each year. This paradox highlights a complex relationship with food, where love and guilt coexist. Doubts about freshness, losing track of fridge contents, and the monotony of leftovers often, etc. lead to reluctant food wastage, perpetuating a cycle of waste.

The FoodChum project aims to disrupt this cycle by fostering a healthy, enjoyable, and sustainable relationship with food. By delving into the essence of food waste reduction and understanding the psychology that underpins human behaviour, we develop key strategies and foster a culture that inspires and empowers users to adopt food-saving practices.

Approach

Desk Research

Drawing insights from the "Food Waste Australian Household Attitudes and Behaviours" report, we gain valuable information on why and what types of food are commonly wasted. This knowledge helps us focus on understanding people's needs during food consumption and identifying obstacles they face.

47%

Thew away fresh vegetables and herbs

46%

Thew away bread and bakery items

33%

Disposed of fresh fruit

11%

Believe food has been stored too long

32%

Could not tell whether food was safe to be consumed based on seeing, smelling or tasting it.

Interview

To uncover the underlying and external factors contributing to food waste, we designed an interview questionnaire focusing on the interplay between users' habits and the food lifecycle.

Demographic

Tell me about your living situation

Shopping & Storing

When at the shops how do you decide what to buy?

Do you have a list? Do you pick items spontaneously?

Do you have any system in place for organising your fridge?

what was the last time you cleaned/organised your fridge?

Do you have a habit of organizing the fridge?

What items mostly are cleared from the fridge according to your experience?

Personal Values

Can you tell me how you feel about wasting food
Where does wasting food mainly come from?
How do you think about food?
Do you consider yourself a food waste?

Waste & Leftover

What's your recent main leftover food?

How do you deal with leftover food?

Under what circumstances you would have leftover food?

Diet Habits

What's your diet habit?

How often did you cook food last week?Is this usual for you? more/less?

What do you usually cook?just for yourself or with your flatmates/ partner/ family member

Methods to Reduce

How do you preserve food usually?

Can you introduce your methods?

Interviewees

Pete

Living with Her Partner

Jordan

Living Alone

Sam

Living with 2 Roommates

Nodi

Living with Her Mum

Michelle

Living with Her Partner

Susan

Living with Her Partner

Tati

Living with Her Partner

The Interview Report

Survey

We crafted a survey consisting of 25 questions and received nearly 40 responses, aiming to evaluate users' experiences with food consumption in critical scenarios. The rating scale question has a bipolar construct as the primary type. This approach allows us to examine our assumptions from our interview findings on a broader scale.

Time Consuming: Less than 5 mins

A. Open Questions:

How many people in your household?
Who does the majority of food shopping in your household?
How would you describe your habits for food shopping?
Who manages food preparation and disposal in your household?
Which of these options best describes your mindset regarding food waste?

B. Rating Scale Questions:

Option: Strongly Disagree - Disagree - Neutral - Agree - Strongly Agree

What contributes to your household's food waste?

I'm very motivated to reduce food waste.
We rarely forget to eat food before it expires.
We aren't sure how to store our food properly
The food might be okay to eat but I don't want to risk it.
We try to eat our leftover meals.
Most of the time we finish our plates.
We cook too much food.
We buy too much food.
We always check the fridge/freezer/pantry before shopping for fresh produce.
We plan our meals ahead of time.
We are too busy to cook the meals that we planned.
We don't like to use leftover ingredients in other meals.
We prefer to eat fresh produce.
We compost our remaining food waste.
When I waste food I feel guilty.

C. Multiple Choice Questions

What food group is wasted most often in your household?
Have you applied any strategies to improve reducing food waste?
Where did you find information about food waste?

D. Ranking Questions
Rank your top motivations for reducing food waste

The Survey Result

Users Insights

Our analysis, blending both qualitative and quantitative data, revealed three distinct patterns in users' food consumption behaviours, forming a continuous loop:

1. Happy Moments:

Users find joy and fulfilment in satisfying their food cravings, particularly valuing freshness. This priority shapes their preferences and concerns.

2. The Sense of Guilt:

There's a strong collective consciousness towards reducing food waste among users, which translates into guilt when food is discarded.

3. Constraints:

Despite a widespread desire to minimize waste, external constraints often result in users reluctantly discarding food, highlighting a gap between intentions and actions.

User Archetype & Story

Based on the different ways people manage food and the challenges they face, there are 3 main types of users identified. According to the Fogg Behavior Mode, "The Reluctant Chef" as the primary user archetype indicates the most potential for growth in abilities and motivations.

The Reluctant Chef

Needs:
Seeks to economise while ensuring food doesn't go to waste and is fresh and healthy.
Constraints:
Struggles with portion control and variety, leading to repetitive leftovers and eventual waste. Despite intentions to minimise waste, time constraints and a lack of accountability hinder habit formation and knowledge acquisition.

The Happy Host

Needs:
Priorities food quality, health, and taste, aiming for positive feedback from guests.
Constraints:
Tends to over-purchase and over prepare, resulting in food spoilage and waste. Guilt arises when unable to finish or properly store food, compounded by a cluttered fridge and a tendency to forget about stored food items.

The Environmentalist

Needs:
Driven by environmental concerns, aims to significantly reduce food waste and seeks to become knowledgeable in sustainable food practices.
Constraints:
Requires more advanced strategies and knowledge to effectively reduce food waste, indicating a need for resources and guidance to support their environmentally motivated habits.

User Senario

Noah, 28

Lives with 3 roommates

Noah has just come home from their usual 9-5 job at the office. They are feeling hungry and are considering options for their dinner, Noah lives independently so he will be organising a meal for one. Checking the fridge they find leftover Masaman curry they cooked in bulk on Sunday night and leftover Chinese food from eating out on Tuesday. Seeing as it's now Thursday, they're unwilling to risk eating older, reheated and less healthy food -- they decide to throw out the rest of the curry. Their guilt is setting in, what a waste of money and food!

The Chinese food should be fine, although Noah has eaten some of these leftovers for lunch earlier that day. Noah once again checks their storage to find inspiration for dinner. They have half-used vegetables and a bit of frozen meat. Noah takes out the items, but finds sad blemishes on the vegetables, not wanting to waste any more food. Noah cuts away the bad parts but still is not sure about the existing ingredients. Starting to feel tired, he decided to use the old recipe...

User Journey

By examining the behaviour loop of "the reluctant chef," it becomes clear that organizing the fridge and managing leftovers play crucial roles in reducing food waste. Our primary focus is on effectively managing existing ingredients, ensuring smart storage and consumption. This insight narrows down our project's problem based on user research findings.

Comparative Analysis

To foster a habit of reducing waste, users must tap into their intrinsic motivation. Incorporating meaningful engagement and effective gamification can guide users through a transformative journey, helping them break old habits and adopt new, sustainable practices.

We identified 4 key areas for optimisation and development:

Enhanced Inventory Accessibility: Create intuitive and versatile ways for users to add and modify inventory items, making the process seamless and user-friendly.
Freshness Tracking: Implement a feature dedicated to monitoring the freshness of food items, helping users minimize waste and consume food at its best.
Diverse Consumption Methods: Offer a variety of methods for using leftovers and existing ingredients, aiming to eliminate monotony and encourage creative meal preparation.
Community Engagement: Amplify the enjoyment and rewarding by fostering community interaction, enabling users to share experiences, tips, and recipes, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.