ABOUT PERSFO (Project ID 20291)

Duration: 1 year, 1st January 2020 to 31st March 2022

Coordinator: PERSFO was coordinated by Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB, UK)

Project Partners: Six beneficiaries from two countries (BE, UK)

Source of funding: PERSFO is funded through EIT Food

AIM: PERSFO aimed to deliver personalised nutrition advice through food service providers’ applications by designing and testing a personalised recommender smartphone application (PERSFO app) that assisted consumers using convenience food delivery services in the workplace make healthier diet choices based on the menu of the food service provider.

Generally, consumers are aware that eating healthy is important, but many still struggle to achieve their dietary goals and eat healthily. PERSFO wanted to bridge the gap between good intentions and actual behaviours and provided support and advised to adopt healthier eating patterns by offering personalised recommendations that can be implemented immediately through workplace catering options.

A stakeholders’ insight study was undertaken to better understand behaviours around healthy eating in the workplace and an intervention study was tested whether the PERSFO app could help users adhere to healthier choices. Different behavioural changing approaches were deployed (e.g. nudging, manipulating choices, group motivation, visualisation and gamification techniques) to study their efficacy in delivering recommendations and steering food choices sustainably.

The PERSFO app is a modular system allowing easier incorporation of personalised nutrition services for different clients and swift adoption in new markets and business models. For more information please contact [email protected]

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-review publication 

De Croon, F. Gutiérrez, R. Berry, S. Astley, K. Verbert and V. V. Abeele – Motivational design techniques to support healthy eating habits at work, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), 2020, pp. 1-3, doi: 10.1109/ICHI48887.2020.9374350.

Trade publication 

Goossens, J; Astley, SB; Mathijssen, G; Simillion, H; Finglas, PM; Segovia-Lizano, D – Introducing personalised nutrition services in a behavioural motivation concept for connected food service environments, Agro FOOD Industry Hi Tech 31(2) 2020: 42-45

Personalized and connected food service providers (PERSFO, Project ID 20291) has received funding from EIT Food, the innovation community on Food of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the EU, under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.