Background
Weighing an individual’s plate waste provides reliable estimates of food intake by
physically weighing individual food components to the nearest gram before and after
a meal. Weighing aggregate, school-level food waste may be an inexpensive and less
time-consuming alternative. However, it has not been determined whether aggregate
plate waste is an accurate measure of individually weighed plate waste.
Objective
This pilot study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of aggregate plate waste for quantifying
food waste in a school cafeteria setting in comparison with individually weighed plate
waste.
Design
A pilot validation study in which aggregate plate waste was compared against individually
weighed plate waste in a school cafeteria setting.
Participants/setting
This study took place in an urban, low-income school district in Massachusetts in
the spring of 2014. Four elementary schools with identical cafeterias and meals participated
in the study. Approximately 1,700 students participated in this study.
Main outcome measures
For individually weighed plate waste, the percent discarded was calculated by dividing
the weight of each discarded item by the average weight of the food item served and
the percent consumed was calculated as the residual. For aggregate-level measurements,
waste was separated by component (entrée, vegetable, fruit, and milk), and the weight
discarded was calculated based on the weight of the cumulative amount remaining and
an average weight for each food item served, with the percent consumed calculated
as the residual.
Statistical analyses performed
Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to assess the agreement
between aggregate plate waste and individual-level plate waste values.
Results
Agreement was excellent for entrées (ICC=0.90) and vegetables (ICC=0.78), but poor
for milk (ICC=0.22) and fruits (ICC=0.23). The overall agreement for all four components
combined was excellent (ICC=0.75).
Conclusions
Results suggest that aggregate plate waste may provide a reasonable estimate of individually
weighed plate waste, but additional research is warranted.
Keywords
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Biography
L. E. Chapman is a PhD candidate, Department of Nutrition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Biography
S. Richardson is a PhD student, Population Health Sciences, Harvard University—Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.
Biography
L. McLeod is vice president, Patient-Centered Outcomes Assessment, RTI Health Solutions, RTI International, Durham, NC.
Biography
E. Rimm is a professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Biography
J. Cohen is an assistant professor, Department of Public Health and Nutrition, School of Health Sciences, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA, and an adjunct assistant professor, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 29, 2019
Accepted:
April 2,
2019
Received:
August 15,
2018
Footnotes
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT A grant from Arbella Insurance funded the data collection. The current analysis had no funding or support.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS S. Richardson, J. Cohen, and E. Rimm obtained funding and designed the study. S. Richardson and J. Cohen collected the data. L. E. Chapman and L. McLeod analyzed the data. L. E. Chapman wrote the first draft with contributions from J. Cohen. All authors reviewed and commented on the subsequent drafts of the manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
