A broader perspective on household food waste: A call for encompassing consumers' food related goals, the food system, and the impact of reduction activities

Food waste in Canada is estimated to amount to $31 billion per year, with approximately half of this waste occurring in households (Gooch & Felfel, 2014). However, household food waste studies remain underrepresented in the literature, particularly in a Canadian context. This paper calls on feminist food scholars to contribute to this gap by incorporating food waste analyses into their food research. This study uses a photovoice methodology and feminist analytical perspectives to investigate the moment when food became “waste” in 22 households in Guelph, Ontario. Findings suggest that food waste production is representative of forms of foodwork (DeVault, 1991), and that attention to food wasting reveals embodied knowledges of food and interactions with the food system. We contend that scholars and those concerned with household waste reduction should examine and consider how the responsibility for food waste management has been constructed to fall along gendered lines. The intersection of these findings with ongoing research in feminist food scholarship reveals that feminist food scholars are well placed to contribute to food waste studies.

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FEED - Modeling the relationship between education and food waste

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence ◽

10.2478/picbe-2020-0072 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 755-768

Author(s):

Valentina Mihaela Ghinea ◽

Ramona Elena Cantaragiu ◽

Mihalache Ghinea

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Causal Model ◽

Simulation Software ◽

Social Disparities ◽

Foreseeable Future ◽

Household Food ◽

The World ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Eu

AbstractAs formed by humans, which are living creatures full of contradictions, our society is characterized as well by lots of paradoxes. One could say that it has never been so wealthy and educated, while others would declare themselves as being grateful for a simple glass of water or a slice of bread, as the world wide abundance of goods and opportunities is counterpointed by deep scarcity, sometimes not too far from the sources of waste. Therefore, quite large amounts of edible food that could have been consumed end up in landfills, thus contributing to environmental pollution and social disparities. Despite many studies conducted in order to better understand the causes of this phenomenon, and although at the EU and UN level some actions were taken in order to reduce consumer food waste, the topic still remains open and it lacks a clear and impactful approach. In this light, we made use of the results of previous studies, and we built the causal model, FEED, based on system dynamics, with the aim to explore the impact of the evolution of educational attainment on the aggregate of household food waste. We then translated the model into the tenet of the dynamic simulation software, TRUE. There was no reinforcing loop displayed by FEED causal loop version, fact aligned with the evolution of our goal-variable when the simulation of the model was run, a result that make us to suspect the possibility of reducing food waste in the foreseeable future.

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Less Food Wasted? Changes to New Zealanders’ Household Food Waste and Related Behaviours Due to the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su131810006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (18) ◽

pp. 10006

Author(s):

Emma L. Sharp ◽

Jillian Haszard ◽

Victoria Egli ◽

Rajshri Roy ◽

Lisa Te Morenga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Full Time ◽

Environmental Reporting ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Household Food ◽

Form Part ◽

Food Planning ◽

Data Gap ◽

Meal Planning ◽

The Impact

Food waste is a crisis of our time, yet it remains a data gap in Aotearoa New Zealand’s (NZ’s) environmental reporting. This research contributes to threshold values on NZ’s food waste and seeks to understand the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown on household food waste in NZ. The data presented here form part of the ‘Covid Kai Survey’, an online questionnaire that assessed cooking and food planning behaviours during the 2020 lockdown and retrospectively before lockdown. Of the 3028 respondents, 62.5% threw out food ‘never’/‘rarely’ before lockdown, and this number increased to 79.0% during lockdown. Participants who wasted food less frequently during lockdown were more likely to be older, work less than full-time, and have no children. During lockdown, 30% and 29% of those who ‘frequently’ or ‘sometimes’ struggled to have money for food threw out food ‘sometimes or more’; compared with 20% of those who rarely struggled to have money for food (p < 0.001). We found that lower levels of food waste correlated with higher levels of cooking confidence (p < 0.001), perceived time (p < 0.001), and meal planning behaviours (p < 0.001). Understanding why food waste was generally considerably lower during lockdown may inform future initiatives to reduce food waste, considering socio-economic and demographic disparities.

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Household Food Waste in A Sample of the Libyan Community

Journal of Nutrition and Food Security ◽

10.18502/jnfs.v6i4.7618 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tawfik M Hassan ◽

Manal M Alkadrawy

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Economic Value ◽

Education Level ◽

Short Message ◽

Extension Programs ◽

Household Level ◽

Face To Face ◽

Shopping List ◽

Household Food ◽

The Impact

Background: Consumer behaviors at the household level have an impact on the quantity of food waste and the economic resources of the family and the country. This study aimed to assess food waste in a random sample of the Libyan community. Methods: A questionnaire was designed for the study and distributed randomly through social media, short message, e-mails, and via face to face interviews from November 26 to December 21, 2019. Results: Forty percent of the respondents used a shopping list for food; while 15% of the respondents discarded food. The percentage of monthly expenditure on food was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with shopping list, income, education level, and employment. Meanwhile, the quantity of food waste was associated (P < 0.05) with education level and place of living. Moreover, the economic value of food waste was associated (P < 0.05) with the shopping list. The bread was the most food waste commodity followed by vegetables and pasta. The quantity of discarded food accounted for 2661 tons/year with an estimated value of 163 million Libyan dinars/year. Conclusion: To reduce household food waste by the Libyan community it is required to improve the quality of bread and raise consumer awareness of the impact of food waste on the environment, economy, and society. This could be achieved through mass media extension programs as well as seminars and workshops.

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Impact of Covid-19 on Household Food Waste: The Case of Italy

Frontiers in Nutrition ◽

10.3389/fnut.2020.585090 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Gioacchino Pappalardo ◽

Simone Cerroni ◽

Rodolfo M. Nayga ◽

Wei Yang

Keyword(s):

Waste Management ◽

Food Waste ◽

Groundwater Pollution ◽

Management System ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Waste Management System ◽

Food Purchases ◽

Household Food ◽

Key Drivers ◽

The Impact

Covid-19 has significantly affected people's food purchasing and consumption habits. Fears of disruptions in the food supply chain have caused an increase in the quantity and type of food bought by households. However, increases in food purchases could give rise to food waste with negative ramifications for the environment in terms of greenhouse emissions and groundwater pollution. To assess whether household food waste has changed during Covid-19 lockdown, we conducted a nationwide survey of household food purchasers in Italy. Although the amount of food purchases increased during the lockdown, our results show that food waste actually decreased as people mainly bought more non-perishable food. Interestingly, concerns about the impact that the pandemic could have on the waste management system and the desire not to add pressure to the waste management system are key drivers of decreased food waste in Italy during the pandemic. Our findings seem to suggest that Italian consumers are developing a new level of awareness about food waste with potential positive impacts on the environment in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater pollution.

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Food Savers or Food Saviors?

Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture ◽

10.1525/gfc.2019.19.3.8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 8-19

Author(s):

Leda Cooks

Keyword(s):

Public Relations ◽

Food Waste ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Food System ◽

Food Justice ◽

The Public ◽

Rural And Urban Areas ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

The Impact

Food recovery groups and networks are springing up all over the world, building on increased concerns over the impact of waste on people and the environment. Food rescue efforts offer prosocial visibility, and thus are increasingly key to the public relations efforts of corporations and nonprofits. Although sometimes seen as the best solution to the food waste problem (Gregson and Alexander 2016), food rescue and donation maintain inequities in the food system and need more critical attention, particularly with regard to food and environmental justice issues. What are the broader forces, social and economic, that make food rescue such a popular option for those concerned about food waste, and how are those forces maintained or perpetuated in our everyday discourse and actions regarding food recovery and donation? This article looks at the discursive and performative forces that link food justice and food rescue inter/nationally, paying particular attention to the value given to saving food from waste. Specifically, after discussing the representation of food waste as a problem in large-scale governmental efforts, I then turn to analysis of ethnographic data and interviews with food recovery networks in rural and urban areas of the midwestern and northeastern United States. I look at who is saving food and their motivations for doing so. Last, I address these acts of rescuing food in light of larger questions about hunger, sustainability, and social justice: the issues linked to food waste and to efforts to reduce it.

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Towards Sustainable Food System in Qatar: Household Food Waste and Consumption Behavior

Journal of Food and Nutrition Research ◽

10.12691/jfnr-6-4-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 200-204

Author(s):

Elmogiera Elawad ◽

Mohamed Agied ◽

Mariam Althani ◽

Sana Abusin

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Food System ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Consumption Behavior ◽

Household Food ◽

Sustainable Food System

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Analysis of the Impact of Others on Household Cooperative Intention to Collect Household Food Waste

Agricultural Information Research ◽

10.3173/air.15.1 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hideo Aizaki

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Household Food ◽

The Impact

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EXPLORING HOUSEHOLD FOOD WASTE ISSUE IN ALGERIA

AGROFOR ◽

10.7251/agreng1701055a ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samir Ali AROUS ◽

Roberto CAPONE ◽

Philipp DEBS ◽

Yasmina HADDADI ◽

Hamid EL BILALI ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Waste ◽

Behavioral Change ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Fruits And Vegetables ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Household Food ◽

Mediterranean Countries ◽

Food Management ◽

Food Losses ◽

The Impact

Food losses and waste (FLW) is a phenomenon that has been underestimated, littlestudied and poorly documented in the Mediterranean countries. Actually, nopolicies, laws, strategies and action plans have been implemented to reduce FLWin Algeria. This exploratory study aims to evaluate household FW in Algeria. Anonline survey with 323 Algerian households was conducted in February-April 2015to assess the knowledge and relative importance of FW; attitudes towards FW;impacts of behaviors regarding food and food management; FW quantity andvalue; as well as barriers and willingness to behavioral change. Sample is genderbalanced(54% female and 46% male) and rather young (93% are less than 44 yearsold) while most of respondents have high education level. Results show thathousehold planning and shopping activities are significant forecasters of FW.Attitudes may change according to periods especially in Ramadan (88% ofrespondents declare that FW increase during this month) and to the category offood (most wasted product groups are fruits and vegetables, cereals and bakeryproducts). Most of the respondents have a good understanding of “use by” fooddate label while they still confuse the meaning of “best before”. It seems that FW iswidespread in Algeria as only 1% of respondents declare that they do not waste anyfood. About 15% declare that their households throw away at least 250 g of stillconsumable food each week. Even though Algeria is considered as a developingcountry, an important part of food wastage occurs at consumer level as in high andmiddle income countries. In order to reduce food waste, efforts should be directedtowards providing consumers with skills and tools to deal with their food-relatedactivities and to better consider the impact of food waste on the environment andeconomy.

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