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Research

There is a food knowledge disconnect between the food research community, and general population. Academic experts know detailed information about foods, but do not know, (and cannot measure easily) what citizens understand or perceive to know about food. This pilot uses the STFC funded Zooniverse platform to ask citizens to provide their perceptions about images of specific foods (and serving sizes). For each food image, one of a range of questions will be asked including perceptions of Calorie Content or Carbon Footprint then Cooking Method, Cooking Time, Food Safety or Animal Welfare.

If you have any questions please contact Dr Christian Reynolds, c.reynolds@sheffield.ac.uk


Calorie
A calorie is a unit that is used to measure energy. The Calorie you see on a food package is actually a “kilocalorie”, or 1,000 calories. A Calorie (kcal) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. The higher the number of Calories the greater the amount of energy in the food.

Examples of product calories:

  • A medium portion of roast Lamb (~90g) contains 240 Calories (kcal) worth of energy.
  • A portion of parsnips (~60g) contains 12.2 Calories (kcal) worth of energy.
  • A bread roll (~112g) contains 280 Calories (kcal) worth of energy.
  • A chocolate bar (~50g) contains 240 Calories (kcal) worth of energy.

Carbon Footprint
Food’s carbon footprint, or foodprint, is the greenhouse gas emissions per gramme of product produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking and disposing of the food you eat. We are measuring greenhouse gas emissions in grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per grams of product. The higher the carbon footprint the more environmental damage.

Examples of product carbon footprint:

  • A medium portion of roast Lamb (~90g) has a carbon footprint of 180g of CO2.
  • A portion of parsnips (~60g) has a carbon footprint of 2.2g of CO2.
  • A bread roll (~112g) has a carbon footprint of 5g of CO2.
  • A chocolate bar (~50g) has a carbon footprint of 9g of CO2.

Cooking Method
Indicate which method you would typically use to cook the food listed.

Examples of cooking method:

  • As pasta is typically boiled, you would select - Boil on the stove.
  • As bananas are typically eaten raw, you would select - I typically eat this food as purchased without further cooking.

Cooking Time
Estimate how many minutes you would typically cook the food for, using your most common cooking method. Please enter the maximum value (120 minutes) for foods which you would cook for over 120 minutes. Cooking time does not include preparation time.

Examples of cooking time:

  • Pasta has a cooking time of 10 minutes - move the slider to 10 minutes.
  • Bananas are typically eaten raw - move the slider to 0 minutes.

Food Safety
Food safety refers to how likely is it that eating them will damage your health due to risks such as contamination, food poisoning, improper handling, food fraud or mislabeling.

All food has the potential to cause food poisoning if contaminated, improperly stored or handled, due to the growth of bacteria or germs. Some types of food are more likely to cause food poisoning as they provide a better environment for bacterial growth than others.

High risk foods provide an environment in which bacteria can grow more easily. These foods should be stored in the fridge or freeze, and may need to be cooked to a high temperature before eating.

Examples of High risk foods include:

  • Fish
  • Meat
  • Chicken
  • Milk

Lower risk foods provide an environment in which bacteria find it more difficult to grow. These foods can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge once opened, and do not always require cooking before consumption.

Examples of Lower risk foods include:

  • Carrots
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Tomatoes

Animal Welfare
Rate how well you think that animals are treated, and the quality in which they are kept to produce the food described. You may wish to consider the quality of the conditions in which the animals are kept and how humanely they are slaughtered.

Please only select food categories related to animal welfare.

Examples of higher animal welfare foods include:

  • Free-range organic eggs
  • Line-caught wild salmon

Examples of lower animal welfare foods include:

  • Battery-farmed chicken
  • Intensively-farmed salmon

We will ask many people to complete the same questions, so don't worry if you aren't absolutely sure. Just give us your best guess.


This project (Piloting Zooniverse to help us understand citizen food perceptions) is funded by pilot funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Food Network+ (https://www.stfcfoodnetwork.org/).