University of Warwick - Big Data Analytics (IB9CSB:09) Assignment 1

This assignment explores the potential of Google Trends data to provide insights into public concerns regarding food safety and quality in the UK. The research question investigates if Google Trends data can be used to understand public concerns about food safety. The assignment anticipates random variations in Google searches related to food quality and safety, driven by trending news and societal events. The analysis utilizes Google Trends data from 2016 to 2018, focusing on keywords like "food quality", "assured food standards", "food safety", and "food processing." The data is read into the R environment, and time series analysis is used to test for trends and seasonality. The assignment uses R functions, including ggplot() for data visualization and decompose() from the forecast package. The dataset comprises weekly data, and the findings suggest that public interest in food safety is often triggered by current events. The analysis aims to determine if there are specific times of the year when people are more worried about food, which could provide insights into the effectiveness of food safety campaigns. The assignment highlights the growing importance of food safety awareness in the context of changing disease patterns and lifestyle choices.

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Big Data Analytics: Assignment 1
Name
Course Number
Date
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Big Data Analytics: Assignment 1
1. Research question
Can google trends data give insights on concerns of food safety and quality for people in the UK?
2. What would the results be
Random variations of the number of googles searches relating to food quality and safety will most
probably be observed. Several weeks within a year will have up to zero number of searches while others
have multiple.
3. Reason for finding this result
This results are expected because the human population behaves in a certain way based on the trending
news or specific occurrences. For instance, if a television show discuss leading causes of cancer, this
might trigger google searches of food safety. Therefore, these are rear events and they can trigger
google search behaviours.
4. The data to be used
Google trends data on food quality, assured food standards, food safety and food processing for 2016,
2017 and 2018 will be used in the analysis.
5. Reading data into R for analysis
The data will be saved as a comma delimited (.csv) file ad it will read into R environment using the
read.csv function. The date variable will be transformed into a date variable using as.Date function and
defining the exact date format based on date-time conversion functions.
6. Statistical method to be used for analysis
I will use time series analysis to test for trend and seasonality in the data. The assumption of time series
analysis is that the data is obtained over time and it has been transformed into time series object in R.
7. R functions to be used for the analysis
I will also use ggplot() visualisation functions to plot the data. The data will be transformed into a time
series object in R using the t() function. Functions such as decompose() among other embedded in
forecast package will also be used for the time series analysis.

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8. The form of data to be analysed
The data to be analysed is weekly data covering between January 2016 and December 2018. There are
around 157 data points for the google trends and 524 for the offline data and they are sufficient to
answer the question.
9. Describing the dream result to a professional audience
The world is changing and health-wise we are experiencing a focus from infectious to non-infectious
diseases. The non-infectious diseases are mostly due to lifestyle change which is defined most by what
we eat. People are getting more sensitive about the safety of the food stuff. Analysis of Google trend
data show that people randomly search about food safety and they are probably ignited by societal
occurrences or trending news. Therefore is no particular time in a year where people are more worried
of food stuff indicating that the food safety association is conducting is mandate appropriately.