Serious Games for Food Waste Reduction

Ezequiel França dos Santos Ph.D. Candidate in Digital Games Development IADE – Universidade Europeia / IPCA - Instituto Politécnico do Cavado e do Ave UNIDCOM/IADE – Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Lisbon, Portugal 2Ai – School of Technology, IPCA, Barcelos, Portugal [email protected] Household food waste represents a major sustainability issue with significant environmental and socio-economic implications [1]. As illustrated in Figure 1, actions at the top of the food use hierarchy such as prevention and redistribution offer the highest value for sustainability. Serious games have emerged as promising tools to foster sustainable habits through interactive and scalable engagement strategies [2]. However, existing interventions often prioritize awareness over measurable outcomes, lacking robust behavioral evidence [2, 3]. This gap calls for empirically grounded approaches that integrate behavioral science with digital design to support lasting change in real-world contexts. Supervisors: Cláudia Sevivas (IADE – Universidade Europeia) Vítor Carvalho (IPCA – Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave) Introduction • Systematic review of 29 interventions using PRISMA guidelines. • Qualitative analysis of 9 serious games via the Playful Learning Framework. • Field study with mobile game intervention (offline-capable). • Participants: Fruta Feia members and matched non-members. • Instruments: In-game behavioral telemetry, pre/post surveys, interviews. Methodology Key Identified Gaps • Lack of reliable metrics beyond self-report. • Few longitudinal or comparative studies. • Underutilization of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) as contexts for game interventions. • Little understanding of how value alignment affects intervention receptivity. Expected Contributions • Development of a serious game grounded in behavior change theory and sustainability research. • Comparative evaluation of intervention outcomes across demographically matched groups (cooperative members and non-members). • Contribution to the scientific discourse on digital sustainability and serious games for food systems transformation. • Support for Fruta Feia in understanding household-level food waste patterns and behavioral impacts among its consumer base. UN Sustainable Development Goals SecondaryPrimary References [1] De Laurentiis, V., Casonato, C., Mancini, L., Garcia Herrero, L., Valenzano, A. & Sala, S. (2024). Building evidence on food waste prevention interventions. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. doi:10.2760/684291 [2] Santos, E.F., Sevivas, C. & Carvalho, V. (2025). Managing Food Waste Through Gamification and Serious Games: A Systematic Literature Review. Information, 16(3), 246. doi:10.3390/info16030246 [3] Aitken, J.A., Duncan, S., Bragge, P. & Reynolds, J. (2024). Surveys and diaries and scales, oh my! A critical analysis of household food waste measurement. Sustainability, 16(3), 968. doi:10.3390/su16030968 [4] Santos, E.F., Sevivas, C., Carvalho, V.H.M. da, Rodrigues, N.F. & Oliveira, E. (2025). Serious games for food waste reduction: A qualitative review. In: 2025 IEEE 13th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH). IEEE. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17234252 [5] Santos, E.F., Sevivas, C., Chalco-Challco, G. & Carvalho, V. (2025). Gamified interventions for composting behavior: A case study using the Gamiflow framework in a workplace setting. In: 2025 IEEE 13th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH). IEEE. doi:10.1109/SeGAH65397.2025.11193736 This research contributes directly to SDG 12 (Target 12.3) and SDG 2, and secondarily to SDG 13 and SDG 15. Serious Games for Food Waste Reduction Figure 1.!Food use hierarchy adapted from the Waste Framework Directive (European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2024)[1] • Investigate how serious games can reduce household food waste. • Co-design and implement an intervention in collaboration with the Fruta Feia cooperative. • Compare behavioral responses between cooperative members and non-members. • Evaluate outcomes through behavioral telemetry, surveys, and self-report. Objectives