From the shopping basket to the landfill: Drivers of consumer food waste behaviour

What shapes food waste behaviors? New insights from a comprehensive action determination model

The sharp increase in food waste poses a serious threat to food security and environmental sustainability. However, most existing studies have investigated the determinants of food waste behaviors in a separate behavioral process without considering the potential impacts of different factors in an integrated process. To narrow this gap, a comprehensive action determination model (CADM), which integrates network embeddedness and incentive measures, was constructed to explore the impact of various determinants in different processes on food waste behaviors, using data collected from 913 residents in eastern China via an online survey. The empirical results showed that environmental concern was the largest positive factor in predicting personal norms (β = 0.80, p < 0.001), followed by network embeddedness. With the habitual process considered, residents with ingrained waste habits were more likely to waste food (β = 0.38, p < 0.001). Moreover, the normative process alleviates behavioral decisions via intentions to reduce food waste. This study confirmed the differences in the situational process and suggested that menu tips increase food waste behaviors, while incentive measures reinforce the influence of intentions on behavior. We therefore address the insufficient ingredients on the effects of different processes on behavior and provide a new perspective for formulating behavioral intervention policies.

Food waste in polish households - Characteristics and sociodemographic determinants on the phenomenon. Nationwide research

In Poland, to our best knowledge, none of the scientific publications produced to date have addressed the scale of wasted food in households and the impact of sociodemographic and economic factors on this. This study fills this research gap. The study was carried out in 2019 on a nationwide random-quota sample of 500 households, which are representative of all households. The survey was carried out in the respondents' homes for seven consecutive days. It consisted of an interview conducted by an interviewer (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews method) and a paper diary completed by the respondents themselves. The aim of the study was to present the volume of wasted food, taking five groups into account,and to examine the impact of the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the households and the person responsible for preparing meals on food waste. The results show that one person, on average, wasted 62.6 kg of edible food per year (98.2 kg of edible and inedible parts combined). According to the results, the most discarded food products include fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy products, drinks and juices, and cold cuts. Statistical analysis showed that the level of food waste in Polish households is conditioned by characteristics such as household size (persons), the presence and number of children, monthly income, as well as the characteristics of the person responsible for preparing meals, such as age and employment status.