JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile food applications have the potential to promote healthier eating behaviors and more sustainable food practices. Graduate students often struggle to maintain healthy dietary habits due to lifestyle transitions, academic stress, limited time, and constrained budgets, which can lead to poor meal planning, irregular eating patterns, and increased food waste.

Objective:

This study aimed to examine graduate students’ dietary behaviors, food waste practices, and preferences for mobile food application features, with the intention of informing the design of user-centered tools that promote healthy eating and reduce food waste.

Methods:

This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. In the first phase, 63 graduate students completed an online survey capturing demographics, cooking habits, dietary preferences, food waste behaviors, and online recipe search behaviors. Findings from the survey shaped the design of interview questions, allowing qualitative inquiry to explain and expand upon quantitative patterns. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and using chi-square test, while qualitative data were transcribed and thematically analyzed.

Results:

Survey findings revealed that participants commonly cooked only a few times per week, frequently ate out, and consumed limited servings of fruits and vegetables. Nearly 70% reported food waste, and a significant association was found between using shopping lists and reduced waste (p = 0.013). Interviews contextualized these patterns: students described time constraints, limited cooking skills, and overbuying as key barriers, while recommended app features such as nutrition tracking, batch meal planning, personalized dietary filters, ingredient-based recipe generators, and grocery list tools with reminders. Participants also emphasized the importance of simple design, multimodal content, and accurate cooking time estimates.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates that integrating quantitative and qualitative insights provides a nuanced understanding of graduate students’ dietary practices, food waste behaviors, and app feature preferences. The findings highlight the need for mobile food applications that are not only evidence-based but also user-centered, offering simple, time-efficient, and customizable tools. Such applications have the potential to address barriers unique to graduate students, such as limited time, cooking skills, and organization, while supporting healthier eating and reducing food waste.