Traqq app for real-time dietary intake research
The benefits
In short- Near real-time dietary assessment via smartphone app
- Supports both food records and (short) recall-based methods
- Flexible design, tailored to specific research questions
- Extensive food database with automated nutrient calculations
- Optional quality checks by our experts
WUR’s innovative smartphone-based app Traqq allows researchers to collect dietary intake data in near real time. This reduces participant burden and improves data accuracy.
Accurate dietary intake data are essential for nutrition and health research, but traditional methods can be time-consuming and burdensome for participants. Traqq addresses this challenge by enabling fast, flexible and reliable dietary assessment through a smartphone-based app.
Researchers can use Traqq as a food record, allowing participants to log foods throughout the day, or as a recall tool. The recall-module asks participants to report intake over predefined time windows ranging from one hour to 24 hours*. Participants select foods from an extensive food list, report portion sizes using household measures, standard portions or grams, and specify eating occasions.
Traqq can be fully tailored to the study design. Researchers can adjust food lists, portion-size reporting, eating occasions and sampling schemes, and the app can be linked to Qualtrics for additional contextual questions. Dietary intake data are processed using the nutrient computation module of Compl-eat , with outputs delivered as CSV files suitable for analysis in any statistical software programme. We also offer optional data checks by our dietitians. They will compare the data to a reference population and identify potential under- or overreporting.
* We recommend using Traqq for shorter recalls and Compl-eat for full 24-hour recalls.
Traqq is developed as a flexible tool and can be tailored to specific research questions:
- Selection of dietary assessment method:
o Food record: participants are asked to report consumed foods throughout the day, or part of the day.
o Recall: participants are asked to report consumed foods over a predefined time period. Traqq facilitates recalls of the previous hour up to the previous 24-hours (e.g., 2-hour recalls, 4-hour recalls) - The food list can be adjusted to ensure coverage of foods of interest (e.g., sports nutrition for athletes, provided foods during a trial)
- The reporting of consumed amounts can be adjusted (e.g., only gram for a weighed food record) or completely turned off (e.g., in case consumed amounts are not of interest)
- Eating occasions can be adjusted or turned off (e.g., in case eating occasion is not of interest)
- Time of consumption can also be requested for each consumed food
- Tailored sampling schemes can be created to facilitate automatic data collection during a prespecified time period
- Linkage to Qualtrics is possible to enable additional questions related to reported food items, eating occasions, or time windows (e.g., food choice motivations, contextual factors)
View background information about our dietary assessment tools and a checklist to select the optimal method for your research aim. And fill in the form to create a quote.
Get in touch
Do you have further questions about using the Traqq for your study? Contact our expert:
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Dietary Assessment Tools
View more information about our tools, conditions of use and a checklist to select your optimal method for your research aim.