Head of the Department of Nutrition, Diet and Metabolic Sciences at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Dr. Gloria Folson, has revealed that the research team behind the Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI) app is collaborating with the Ghana School Feeding Programme to improve the nutritional quality of meals served to schoolchildren.
FRANI is a mobile-based, artificial intelligence-assisted technology developed through an international research collaboration. It identifies food from photographs, estimates portion sizes and assesses nutritional content, with potential applications in dietary assessment and food monitoring.
Speaking on the Research and Innovation Agenda show on Radio Univers on 28 October 2026, Dr. Folson stated that the team plans to pilot the application as a monitoring tool before the end of 2026.
“We are actually working closely with the Ghana School Feeding Programme to try and improve the quality of the school meals, so before the year ends, God willing, we will actually pilot FRANI as a monitoring tool,” she said.
She further explained that monitoring the school feeding programme across the country is costly and outlined how the FRANI app could be used to support the process.
“It takes a lot of money to go around the whole country to monitor such a big programme, that is feeding so many children across the country and so we developed a school feeding version of it where either the head teacher or a designated person in the school will be able to take pictures of the school meals that are delivered,” she said.
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Story by Millicent Jackson Quansah | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Vanessa Katrin Ohene
