Designing and Implementing the MySusCof App—A Mobile App to Support Food Waste Reduction

Abstract

Consumers are responsible for almost 50 percent of food waste. Consumer-focused interventions are crucial to achieve many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 12.3. There are many factors that cause food waste, and these can be prevented by changing the consumption behavior of adults. Mobile apps are seen as promising tools to change consumer behavior for ensuring more sustainable food consumption. This study describes the development process and examines the perceived quality of MySusCof, an app intended to reduce the food waste of consumers. The uMARS scale was used for collecting data from consumers. Within the scope of the study, two studies were conducted to examine the development process of the application and to determine the user reactions to the mobile application. Results show that gamification elements with hedonic and social components, as well as functional aspects, are important features for user engagement and perceived impact. The qualitative results also supported the user experience in both hedonic and functional value and role of mobile apps to lead behavior change. This study serves as a guideline for future developers of mobile apps intended to lead consumers to a more sustainable food consumption.

Mobile applications to reduce food waste in supply chains: a systematic literature review

“…Haas et al. (2022) develop a new FWMA called MySusCof offering food management information and tips to reduce food waste.…”

“…Practical testing showed that the process of food waste collection was simpler with the help of the mobile application and the gamified design incentivized people in the community to learn and adapt a proper way to dispose of food waste; this helped the government with food waste compliance monitoring. Haas et al (2022) develop a new FWMA called MySusCof offering food management information and tips to reduce food waste. Users gain credits by completing food purchasing and food management tasks.…”

Assessment and Solutions to Food Waste at Congress Events: A Perspective of the MagNuS Project

“…It is not about partial strategies but about launching collective projects that are both multi-and interdisciplinary. Although there is an app (MySusCof) [59] focused on educating people about the sustainability potential of food waste, there is currently no app that enables simultaneous education on sustainability (highlighting the importance of utilizing food waste), nutrition (promoting healthy eating), and culinary skills (facilitating the creation of recipes with the foods available to consumers, automatically). The use of food waste for charity canteens from Valencia with Foodration4all [60] is proposed, where the charity uses a blockchain application to purchase cards to obtain food/reduce food waste [70].…”

“…Finally, the results were focused on sustainability, corresponding to the initial "S" in the acronym MagNuS project. This project has identified four steps that could be taken to achieve the sustainability goal set out in the technical guide about sustainability in the Valencia Conference Center, as follows: (i) that the catering company uses of the Too Good To Go app to help reduce food waste and CO 2 emissions and to allow the general public to access quality products at an affordable price [58], (ii) the Center could raise awareness among its events' attendees with a mobile app called MySusCof, thus applying sustainability education to reduce the food waste of consumers [59], (iii) the leftover food could be used in charity canteens in Valencia by Foodration4all [60], and (iv) the Center could create compost from the food waste [61] and use it in the gardens on-site.…”

Managing Household Food Waste with the FoodSaveShare Mobile Application

“…Five of them, i.e., FoodKeeper [20], CozZo [21], Fridge Pal [22], No Waste [23], and StillTasty [24], were still available online in 2022, while others, i.e., Pantry [19] and Green Egg [25], are no longer available or maintained. It is worth mentioning that several apps are documented in the scientific literature as prototypes (e.g., EatChaFood [26], Pantry [19], MySus-Cof [27]), but nevertheless address many theoretical and practical aspects of the application design process. The five tools still available address food inventory management through one or more functionalities: (a) organising purchased products based on expiration date, (b) organising household food needs in shopping lists, and (c) suggestions for using up leftovers and products about to expire (Table 1).…”