RescuePlate: Streamlining Food Donation, Rescue, and Reuse through Web and Mobile Apps

Abstract: Food waste poses a serious problem in the Philippines with far-reaching impacts on the economy, society, and environment. This affects households, restaurants, and other stakeholders. To deal with this matter, Senate Bill 240 also known as the Zero Food Waste Act of 2022 was put in place which gives importance to recycling and redistribution among others. This research presents “RescuePlate: Streamlining Food Donation, Rescue, and Reuse through Web and Mobile Apps” designed to manage food waste by promoting donations; tracking expiry dates of food stuff; and providing real-time information about available donated foods among other things. The objectives are system designing; developing mobile apps; and evaluating quality and usability according to ISO/IEC 25010:2011 standardization.

The methodology uses a descriptive developmental approach that employs rapid application development (RAD) for system design as well as observation, interviews, internet research, and survey questionnaires for data collection. This study was conducted in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental Province, Philippines among local communities, food establishments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Findings reveal that the mobile app is highly efficient in managing food waste donation; sorting user profiles; showing available food waste on a map and generating lists of foods. The functionality and usability of this mobile application received positive feedback from users who tested it during their evaluation period. The RescuePlate system shows good performance across different ISO 25010 characteristics such as functional suitability, compatibility security, maintainability, and portability among others. Further, it is also recommended that a similar study may be conducted to improve the RescuePlate: Streamlining Food Donation, Rescue, and Reuse through Web and Mobile Apps and the effectiveness of the presented solutions.