Testing Interventions and Developing a Knowledge-based Recommendation System to Reduce Plate Waste in School Catering in Latvia

Testing Interventions and Developing a Knowledge-based Recommendation System to Reduce Plate Waste in School Catering in Latvia

Project number:lzp-2022/1-0492

Project manager/coordinator: Dr., asoc.prof. Jeļena Lonska

Project goal: The goal of the project is to assess the impacts of interventions aimed at reducing the amount of plate waste in selected schools in Rezekne city in relation to smart and responsible food consumption and identify the level of awareness of schoolchildren about the negative impacts of food waste (FW) and their knowledge and attitudes towards healthy eating behaviours and opinions on school canteen work management, as well as to develop knowledge-based recommendation system prototype to reduce the amount of FW in Latvian schools.

Project annotation: Research hypothesis: making individual interventions aimed at reducing the amount of PW at Rezekne city schools can reduce the amount of PW that remains after school lunches, thereby promoting sustainable food consumption.

Tasks of the project: (1) to make individual interventions (recommendations) aimed at reducing the amount of PW, which were defined by the previous research on the management of catering services at Rezekne city schools in cooperation with the administrations of selected schools in Rezekne city; (2) to perform pre-intervention and post-intervention quantification of the amount of PW with the aim of statistically assessing the impacts of the interventions made; (3) to conduct a pre-intervention and a post-intervention survey of schoolchildren with the aim of receiving feedback for improvement; (4) to develop a prototype of a knowledge-based recommendation system for PW reduction at schools in Latvia; (5) to disseminate the project results by preparing at least 3 research papers to be published in high level scientific journals (Q1, Q2) indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection or SCOPUS databases, participate in at least 2 international scientific conferences; (6) to manage, administratively coordinate and supervise the project.

Project results:

  • 6 datasets are acquired
  • At least 3 scientific research papers published in Scopus or WoS indexed high-level (Q1/Q2) scientific journals
  • Participation in at least 2 international scientific conferences
  • 1 PhD thesis is defended in project related topic (PhD student J.Deksne, scientific supervisor asoc.prof. L.Litavniece)
  • A prototype of the knowledge-based recommendation system is developed

Partners: Lead partner: Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Associated partners: Rezekne State Polish Gymnasium, Rezekne Secondary School No. 2, Rezekne Primary School No. 3, Rezekne Primary School No. 6, “Matomatic AB” (Sweden).

Project budget: 299’997,00 EUR

Project funding source: Latvian Council of Science

RTA staff involved: J.Lonska, A.Zvaigzne, L.Litavniece, I.Silicka, S.Kodors, I.Zarembo, Doktoranti I.Kotāne, J.Dekšne, I.Apeināns.