Project

Untangle and monitor online food environments using Data-Science and Artificial Intelligence

The food environment is the interface where individuals interact with the broader food system to acquire and consume foods. Recently, the digital transition transformed and disrupted our food environment and the way we are exposed to and shop for food. The widespread adoption of smart technology has notably expanded consumers' access to and utilization of home meal delivery services. Also, the digital transition has reshaped food advertising practices. The food industry is increasingly employing AI-driven strategies to target consumers and promote their products.
While these digital developments of food environments are known, we lack understanding of actual exposure to online food offers and advertisements, and thus the extent that digital food environments contribute to the obesity pandemic.

In this project, we aim to develop novel and scientifically advance data science techniques through the case of online food environments. The developed techniques will be applicable practically, including data aggregation and knowledge graph generation, ontology and knowledge graphs interlinking and decision making with hybrid reasoning. This will advance public health nutrition research into digital food environments as these techniques are necessary to obtain and analyse the large volume of data to understand the nature of digital food offers and promotions.