Image database of Japanese food samples with nutrition information

Wataru Sato; Kazusa Minemoto; Reiko Sawada; Yoshiko Miyazaki; Tohru Fushiki

doi:10.7717/peerj.9206

Image database of Japanese food samples with nutrition information

PeerJ. 2020 Jun 17:8:e9206. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9206. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Wataru Sato¹, Kazusa Minemoto², Reiko Sawada², Yoshiko Miyazaki³, Tohru Fushiki³

Affiliations

¹ RIKEN, Kyoto, Japan.
² Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
³ Ryukoku University, Ohtsu, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Visual processing of food plays an important role in controlling eating behaviors. Several studies have developed image databases of food to investigate visual food processing. However, few databases include non-Western foods and objective nutrition information on the foods.

Methods: We developed an image database of Japanese food samples that has detailed nutrition information, including calorie, carbohydrate, fat and protein contents. To validate the database, we presented the images, together with Western food images selected from an existing database and had Japanese participants rate their affective (valence, arousal, liking and wanting) and cognitive (naturalness, recognizability and familiarity) appraisals and estimates of nutrition.

Results: The results showed that all affective and cognitive appraisals (except arousal) of the Japanese food images were higher than those of Western food. Correlational analyses found positive associations between the objective nutrition information and subjective estimates of the nutrition information, and between the objective calorie/fat content and affective appraisals.

Conclusions: These data suggest that by using our image database, researchers can investigate the visual processing of Japanese food and the relationships between objective nutrition information and the psychological/neural processing of food.

Keywords: Image database; Japanese food; Liking; Nutrition; Wanting.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the Project of the NARO Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (Integration Research for Agriculture and Interdisciplinary Fields, Japan), the Research Complex Program from Japan Science and Technology Agency, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (18K03174). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.