FoodEd : Encouraging sustainable food waste practices through an informative app

Sammanfattning: Every year 1.6 billion tons of food is thrown away corresponding to one third of all the food that is roduced. It accounts for 8 % of the global greenhouse gas emission, meaning that it has a huge negative impact on the environment. In Sweden, households account for the largest amount of food waste. Therefore, this study focuses on reducing food waste on a household level in Swedish households. There is a growing interest in HCI for how design can be used for reducing food waste by changing unsustainable behaviour. In this work a working mobile prototype, FoodEd, was designed, implemented and studied. FoodEd contains information of how to handle and store different food items in an optimal way. The aim was to raise awareness of good food handling practices and edibility beyond expiry dates in order to prevent unnecessary food waste in households. In this study, FoodEd was used by 10 participants during a week’s time. Two qualitative interviews were held with each participant during the study. The findings of the study indicate that an informative design can be effective in providing relevant information for its users leading to more sustainable food waste behaviours.