Impact of Messaging Strategy on Consumer Understanding of Food Date Labels

Estimates of Household Food Waste by Categories and Their Determinants: Evidence from China

Household food waste has become a global concern for all countries in the world. This study focuses on the household level to clarify the impact of household food waste, and we use an online questionnaire survey across China to estimate the proportion of household food waste from five categories, including whole food; fruits and vegetables; poultry, eggs, meat, and dairy products; staple food; and snacks and candy. Then, we use the logit and Tobit models to estimate the relationship between the five food categories and consumer characteristics. First, the statistical analysis shows that in China, the incidence rate and proportion of household food waste are 90.7% and 9.9%, respectively. Among them, the incidence rate and proportion of fruit and vegetable waste are the highest. The results of heterogeneity also show regional differences in the incidence rate and proportion of food waste. Second, the empirical results show that label cognition, garbage disposal cognition, vegetarianism, population, children or elders in the household, the experience of starvation, and age are important explanatory factors for the incidence and proportion of food waste in the household.

Enablers and barriers of harnessing food waste to address food insecurity: a scoping review

Despite producing sufficient food for the global population, the growing prevalence of food insecurity in developed countries is cause for concern. The millions of metric tons of food wasted each year could be used instead to drastically lower rates of food insecurity and address food sustainability. In this scoping review, we aimed to identify barriers to and enablers of harnessing food waste across food sectors, including food retail, households, and food rescue organizations, to address food insecurity in a developed country, Australia. The findings demonstrate that research on and responsibility for harnessing food waste for food insecurity has predominantly fallen on ill-equipped food rescue organizations. Three primary policy advancements paramount to harnessing food waste to address food insecurity include (1) improving partnerships and subsidies to minimize transportation costs for redistributing imperfect or surplus food from farmers and retailers to those who with food insecurity; (2) enhancing existing partnerships and subsidies to stably involve more nutrition experts in food rescue organizations to improve the quality of foods being redistributed to those facing food insecurity; and (3) initiating interventions and campaigns that combine the following 5 characteristics: free to the participants; address food literacy; use multiple mass-media tools; are age tailored; and frame messages within personal values.

Consumer Perceptions, Behaviors, and Knowledge of Food Waste in a Rural American State

Understanding consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards food waste is critical for informing evidence-based programs to advance sustainable food systems. A lack of knowledge regarding consumer food waste at the local level limits the ability to inform place-based solutions that are locally relevant. We administered an online survey to examine consumer perceptions, behaviors, and knowledge of food waste at the household level in Montana, a rural state in the United States. The majority of surveyed participants (58%) reported that they waste 10% or less of procured food. Almost half the participants (48%) are willing to take additional action to reduce food waste. Social factors including guilt and setting a good example were found to be greater motivators for reducing food waste compared to economic and environmental factors. Most survey participants (80%) perceive it would not be difficult to notably reduce their household's food waste. Overall, participants' reporting of their household's food waste quantity is lower than national quantities while their willingness to reduce food waste was higher than findings from a national survey. This study highlights the need for place-based solutions that are locally relevant to reduce household food waste towards enhancing the sustainability of food systems for supporting planetary health.