ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the digital photography methods which require active data collection, meaning the burden of capturing food images falls to personnel in cafeteria settings, or the participant in free-living settings. The method produces rich data on food selection, plate waste, and food intake and has been used successfully in diverse samples of participants, including infants, children, adults, soldiers, and individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The emergence of technology brought about the development of software applications for mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to record food intake with the intention of improving accuracy and easing the burden of keeping a food diary. Analyzing a large number of food images can be resource intensive, even if computer programs take human-generated portion-size estimates and calculate the energy and nutrient values of food selection, plate waste, and food intake based on a reference database housed in the software.
