Development of a photographic aid for estimating food weights of boxed meals served in evacuation shelters

Abstract

Comprehensive food atlases, which are extensively-researched books on a large variety of foods, developed for estimating food weights during dietary assessment of usual melas. As similar foods are served in evacuation shelters, an estimation aid specifically developed for emergency situations might help individuals easily discover the target food and reduce their burden of research. Herein, we developed a novel, compact estimation aid for disaster shelters and examined the usefulness of it. Of the 82 meals served at 12 evacuation shelters during the heavy rain disaster in Kumamoto in July 2020, 16 boxed-meal food items were investigated, and their photographs, food labelling numbers, and names were provided in the aid. Furthermore, four boxed-meal photographs were utilized for estimation. Thirty-three senior students enrolled in a registered dietitian training course were asked to estimate food weights twice, with and without the aid (participation rate＝89%). When using the aid, the number of students who could estimate three or four meals within±10% of error for energy was doubled, between-estimator variation was reduced to one-third, and average estimation time was reduced by 6.7 min. The estimation aid helped estimate the portion size and types of foods served in shelters and reduce trouble for information retrieval.