Food Recognition and Nutritional Apps

TL;DR

This paper reviews current food recognition and nutritional apps, highlighting their potential to aid diabetes management, while analyzing barriers to their adoption and outlining future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive assessment of existing food and nutrition apps, identifying factors affecting their usage and suggesting areas for further development.

Findings

Apps have potential to improve diabetes management

Low user adoption due to usability and awareness issues

Research gaps in AI accuracy and user engagement

Abstract

Food recognition and nutritional apps are trending technologies that may revolutionise the way people with diabetes manage their diet. Such apps can monitor food intake as a digital diary and even employ artificial intelligence to assess the diet automatically. Although these apps offer a promising solution for managing diabetes, they are rarely used by patients. This chapter aims to provide an in-depth assessment of the current status of apps for food recognition and nutrition, to identify factors that may inhibit or facilitate their use, while it is accompanied by an outline of relevant research and development.