China’s annual Food Safety Publicity Week in June 2019 has, for the first time, included smartphone games in its activities. Food related governmental and non-governmental organizations liaised with Alipay (Alibaba’s payment application) launching a smartphone quiz-game with an unprecedented level of public engagement with food information (i.e., food safety, nutrition, and food science and technologies): 12 million participants and 1.7 billion instances of participation within 1 week. This example demonstrates the great potential of smartphone games, and more widely, digital tools, in food-related public education. Given the extent of misinformation among the public on food safety and nutrition issues, food scientists and organizations should be empowered to embrace emerging tools, such as smartphone games, in order to positively shape public opinions. To aid in this task, this commentary article analyzes the factors behind the unprecedented success of Alipay’s smartphone quiz-game during China’s Food Safety Publicity Week.
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