2020-12-16 End-of-year Update

This activity is designing and delivering a two-year study, each year-long arm of which is independent, because funding for year 2 is not guaranteed. The first year has been dedicated to developing a recommender and integrating this with the PERSFO app. The second year – if funded – will include a proof-of-principle intervention study within a workplace setting.

During 2020, despite the pandemic, this task has started preparations for the field study, including defining the scope and protocol. The aim is to run a workplace study at canteen(s) where Sodexo provides workplace catering; Sodexo operates across Belgium providing menus for a diverse consumer base. In drafting the protocol, PERSFO has had to considered how the study will run in practice, especially now things are a little different at work, calculated the number of participants necessary to ensure valid results and the duration of intervention as well as pinpointing measurable outcomes (e.g., compliance with recommendations, users achieving personal goals).

These activities have been achieved in close collaboration with the 360° stakeholder analysis and development of the PERSFO app, which worked with consumer focus groups – under strict public health controls – to ensure an appropriate and usable design for both the app and the study. The study will test whether the PERSFO app, providing personalised dietary recommendations based on users’ goals and linked directly to information from catering outlets, can help consumers achieve a healthier diet. There is evidence to suggest that personalised dietary advice is more readily followed than generic healthy eating advice. Thus, personalised recommendations implemented with existing catering options might remove some of the barriers associated with eating healthily with the workplace.

Linking what we should eat with what is available, and facilitating traceability from source to plate, is a simple and novel approach, but could be extended to a variety of settings including schools and hospitals, for example. However, due to the pandemic, employees across Europe have been asked to work from home wherever possible. This has made it complicated to find an organisation willing to support testing of PERSFO, difficult but not impossible and Sodexo has secured the cooperation of a client where the study will be performed with 40 employees over four weeks during 2021.

Below are some examples from the PERSFO app tested during development