SousChef: Mobile Meal Recommender System for Older Adults

Nowadays, following a healthy diet is a challenge, either due to the large variety of food and ingredient combination possibilities or due to the lack of knowledge required to make healthy choices. This problem is even more patent amongst older adults. Although some recommender systems and applications have been proposed with aim to monitor calorie consumption and/or to suggest healthy recipes to general consumers, no similar solution was yet presented focused on older adults’ needs. In this work, a mobile meal recommender system, SousChef, for this target group is presented. This system is capable of creating a personalized meal plan based on the information provided by the user, including the anthropometric measures, personal preferences and activity level. The nutritional recommendations and the application was thought and designed for older adults, presenting friendly user interfaces and following the guidelines of a nutritionist. Tests with users were conducted in order to ascertain recipe and nutritional plan suitability as well as usability of the mobile application. Results showed that more than 70% of the older adult participants were satisfied with the meal plan suggestions and with the simplicity of the SousChef