scholarly journals Avoidable Household Food Waste: Diagnosing the Links between Causes and Composition

Recycling ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Peter J. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Management Measures

Problems associated with the wastage of food intended for human consumption are well known and the discarding of edible but unconsumed food—avoidable food waste—is clearly undesirable. Interventions to reduce avoidable food waste need to be suitably informed: understanding the causes and consequences of avoidable food waste is instructive in this regard. One hitherto unexplored approach to understand better the causes of food waste is to elucidate associations between the composition of avoidable food waste and the reasons why it is generated. If such associations can be established, data relating to the composition of avoidable food waste can contribute evidence to underpin interventions intended to prevent or reduce avoidable food waste. The aim of this study was therefore to explore links between the causes of avoidable food waste and its composition, and thereby contribute to the development of management measures. Information relating the commonly reported causes of avoidable food waste and its composition (part-consumed, whole-unused and leftovers) was gathered via a series of participatory workshops involving university students. Outcomes of the workshops indicated that individual causes of avoidable food waste rarely lead exclusively to a single type of avoidable food waste, but some relationships were evident. Five of the 13 causal factors explored were considered to lead to all three types of avoidable food waste; a further five were considered to lead mainly to part-consumed and whole-unused food waste. Potential interventions to effect positive change are explored; the value of classifying avoidable food waste to guide interventions was evident, although approaches would need to be aligned with the observed composition of avoidable food waste and the method(s) of intervention considered. Applications of the approach and outcomes of this study are also considered in a policy context.

scholarly journals THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF FOOD WASTE

Traditiones ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Dan Podjed ◽  
Katarina Polajnar Horvat
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Household Food ◽  
The World ◽  
The Invisible

In recent years, food waste has become an important issue that attracts attention from scientists, consumers, and activists. According to the World Bank, one third of food produced for human consumption is wasted. In Slovenia, almost 131,800 tons of food waste were generated in 2017, or 64 kg per person on average. This article presents the findings of a study on household food waste in Slovenia and, more specifically, its capital, Ljubljana. The authors studied food waste management using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches (i.e., a survey and an ethnographic study). These approaches were combined in order to obtain a broader picture of waste management and explain how, when, and why people “transform” food into waste.

scholarly journals COVID-19-Related Changes in Perceived Household Food Waste in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1104
Author(s):  
Kelly Cosgrove ◽  
Maricarmen Vizcaino ◽  
Christopher Wharton
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Binomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Fresh Vegetables

Food waste contributes to adverse environmental and economic outcomes, and substantial food waste occurs at the household level in the US. This study explored perceived household food waste changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and related factors. A total of 946 survey responses from primary household food purchasers were analyzed. Demographic, COVID-19-related household change, and household food waste data were collected in October 2020. Wilcoxon signed-rank was used to assess differences in perceived food waste. A hierarchical binomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine whether COVID-19-related lifestyle disruptions and food-related behavior changes increased the likelihood of household food waste. A binomial logistic regression was conducted to explore the contribution of different food groups to the likelihood of increased food waste. Perceived food waste, assessed as the estimated percent of food wasted, decreased significantly during the pandemic (z = −7.47, p < 0.001). Food stockpiling was identified as a predictor of increased overall food waste during the pandemic, and wasting fresh vegetables and frozen foods increased the odds of increased food waste. The results indicate the need to provide education and resources related to food stockpiling and the management of specific food groups during periods of disruption to reduce food waste.

scholarly journals Intention to Purchase Active and Intelligent Packaging to Reduce Household Food Waste: Evidence from Italian Consumers

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4486
Author(s):  
Antonella Cammarelle ◽  
Rosaria Viscecchia ◽  
Francesco Bimbo
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Perceived Behavioral Control ◽  
Intelligent Packaging ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Willingness To Purchase

Innovations in food packaging, such as active and intelligent ones, improve food safety and lower household food waste by extending product shelf life and providing information about food quality, respectively. The consumer adoption of such innovations could contribute to reaching one of the Sustainable Development Goals which calls for halving the per capita global food waste by 2030. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the consumers’ willingness to purchase active and intelligent packaging to reduce household food waste using a sample of 260 Italian consumers and a modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model. Using a structural equation model, findings show that respondents are more willing to purchase intelligent packaging rather than active packaging to reduce their wastes at home. Finally, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, awareness, and planning routines are the most important drivers of the intention to reduce household food waste.

Household food waste in Greece: A questionnaire survey

2017 ◽  
Vol 149 ◽  
pp. 1268-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stavros T. Ponis ◽  
Pantelia-Anna Papanikolaou ◽  
Petros Katimertzoglou ◽  
Athanasia C. Ntalla ◽  
Konstantinos. I. Xenos
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Household Food

scholarly journals Does the COVID-19 external shock matter on household food waste? The impact of social distancing measures during the lockdown

2021 ◽  
pp. 105815
Author(s):  
Matteo Vittuari ◽  
Matteo Masotti ◽  
Elisa Iori ◽  
Luca Falasconi ◽  
Tullia Gallina Toschi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Household Food ◽  
The Impact

Household food waste dehydration technique as a pretreatment method for food waste minimisation

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aggelos Sotiropoulos ◽  
Nikoletta Bava ◽  
Katerina Valta ◽  
Stergios Vakalis ◽  
Vasiliki Panaretou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Pretreatment Method ◽  
Household Food ◽  
Waste Minimisation

scholarly journals Fenced community gardens effectively mitigate the negative impacts of white-tailed deer on household food security

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Manning
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Household Food Security ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Large Herbivores ◽  
Deer Herbivory ◽  
Behavioural Modification ◽  
Household Food

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are large herbivores that thrive in urban and peri-urban landscapes. Their voracious appetite and ubiquity have made deer a significant threat to growing food in home and community gardens; features that often make important contributions towards household food security. Focusing on food availability, stability, utilization, and access, I outline how white-tailed deer threaten household food security. Deer threaten availability of food by widely consuming plants grown for human consumption. Deer threaten stability of household food security by causing spatially and temporally unpredictable food losses. Deer threaten utilization of food, through acting as sources of food-borne pathogens (i.e. Escherichia coli O157:S7). Deer threaten access to food by necessitating relatively high-cost economic interventions to protect plants from browsing. Although numerous products are commercially available to deter deer via behavioural modification induced by olfaction and sound – evidence of efficacy is mixed. Physical barriers can be highly effective for reducing deer browsing, but often come with a high economic cost. Users of community gardens benefit from fencing by receiving shared protection against deer herbivory at a significantly lower per capita cost. Among many other benefits, fenced community gardens are useful in mitigating the threats of white-tailed deer to household food security.

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