Measuring Plate Waste: Validity and Inter-Rater Reliability of the Quarter-Waste Method

Measuring food waste in school cafeterias is an important tool to evaluate the effectiveness of school nutrition policies aiming to increase consumption of healthier meals. Visual assessment methods are frequently applied in plate waste studies because they are more convenient than weighing; the visual quarter-waste method has become one of the most commonly used in studies of school meal consumption, but little is known about its accuracy. The aim of this study was to determine whether the visual quarter-waste method is valid and reliable in a school cafeteria setting when compared to weighing plate waste.

Materials Available

• Abstract

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Project Type(s): Master's Thesis

Author(s): Katherine Getts

Program(s): Master of Public Health, RDN Training

Year: 2015

Adviser(s):

• Donna B. Johnson