Session/Event: Tools of Nutrition Translation (Oral 23)

(OR23-05-22) Recognition of Culturally Diverse Cuisine in Popular Nutrition Apps

On Demand

Presenting Author(s)

Alexis D. Cathcart, Candidate for B.S. Computer Science

Undergraduate Student
North Carolina A&T State University
Greensboro, North Carolina, United States

Disclosure: Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

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Co-Author(s)

MW

Matthew Wiggins, MS

North Carolina A&T State University
WK

William Kelly, N/A

North Carolina A&T State University
CD

Christopher Doss, PhD

North Carolina A&T State University
YF

Yvonne Ford, PhD

North Carolina A&T State University
RH

Robert Hubal, PhD

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
KR

Kristen Rhinehardt, PhD

North Carolina A&T State University

Objectives: Nutrition apps have been designed to assist users in determining the nutritional value of their food in alliance with their dietary restrictions and/or health. However, many of these apps do not incorporate or recognize the cuisine of the diverse communities that they serve. In this work we assessed several of the most popular free apps and compared with the most popular dishes in Latin America, Europe, India, East Asia, West Africa, and the American South to determine the rate of recognition of culturally diverse cuisines in popular nutrition apps.

Methods: We built a consensus database of over 150 culturally popular foods via a web scraper for foods from Latin American, Europe, India, East Asia, West Africa, and the American South. Researched & logged popular dishes from International cuisines with their corresponding nutritional data. Each food item was run against Calorie Mama, Lose It, My Fitness Pal and My Plate to determine the recognition and availability of the nutritional value.

Results: European and Indian dishes were better recognized (greater than 70%) across all apps than West African and Latin American dishes. Of the dishes that were recognizable, most were due to manual entry and lacked some of the nutritional information, making the apps less useful.

Conclusions: We note a bias among popular nutrition apps in not taking into account cuisines, from both international and regional American communities, leaving many communities underserved and contributing to health inequalities gap.

Funding Sources: N/A