Food waste matters - A systematic review of household food waste practices and their policy implications

Determinants of consumer food waste behaviour: Two routes to food waste.

There has been growing interest in establishing food waste prevention and recovery programs throughout the world. The drive to target food waste stems from increasing concerns about resource conservation, food security, food waste's environmental and economic costs, and a general trend in the waste management industry to transition to more sustainable practices. Here the drivers of residential, institutional, and commercial food waste generation in developed countries, particularly in the U.S., are explored. The impacts of food system modernization on food waste generation are examined, including impacts related to food system industrialization, urbanization, globalization, and economic growth. Socio-demographic, cultural, political, and economic drivers of food waste are described with emphasis on how food waste perspectives may vary globally. Specific behaviors and attitudes which result from many of these waste drivers are then discussed. The examination of the range of food wastage drivers are used to provide insight into the best policy approaches to sustainably manage food waste. Food waste prevention policies are placed in context of the waste generating behaviors and attitudes that they address. A review of important background information on food waste is also provided, including definitions of key terms, food waste history, quantities of food waste generated, and the importance of food waste prevention for sustainability, as this information is all critical for effective policy development.

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Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development

In the past decade, food waste has received increased attention on both academic and societal levels. As a cause of negative economic, environmental and social effects, food waste is considered to be one of the sustainability issues that needs to be addressed. In developed countries, consumers are one of the biggest sources of food waste. To successfully reduce consumer-related food waste, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the factors influencing food waste-related consumer perceptions and behaviors. The present paper presents the results of a literature review and expert interviews on factors causing consumer-related food waste in households and supply chains. Results show that consumers’ motivation to avoid food waste, their management skills of food provisioning and food handling and their trade-offs between priorities have an extensive influence on their food waste behaviors. We identify actions that governments, societal stakeholders and retailers can undertake to reduce consumer-related food waste, highlighting that synergistic actions between all parties are most promising. Further research should focus on exploring specific food waste contexts and interactions more in-depth. Experiments and interventions in particular can contribute to a shift from analysis to solutions.

Consumer-related food waste: causes and potential for action

Food waste generation and industrial uses: A review.

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire and food waste diary study on the influence of socio-demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the amount of avoidable household food waste in 380 Finnish households. The research data were collected through a 2-week food waste diary study accompanied by a background questionnaire. The influences of socio-demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the production of food waste were studied through application of descriptive statistics. It was established that only few factors clearly correlate with the amount of avoidable food waste. The factors that influenced the amount of food wasted were the size of the household, the gender of the person mainly responsible of grocery shopping, the frequency of buying discounted food products, the respondent's own view of the potential to reduce food waste and the respondent's own view of the influence of purchasing particular food packet sizes. The main factors with which no clear correlation was detected included age of the oldest person in household; area, form and type of residence; educational level and type of work of adults in the family; and shopping, food preparation and eating habits.

Influence of socio-demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the amount of avoidable food waste generated in Finnish households

This paper examines the environmental impacts of food waste and the influence that packaging alternatives can have on causing food waste. This paper presents the results of three life cycle assessment case studies on packed food products. The life cycle assessments were conducted for ham, dark bread and Soygurt drink (fermented soy-based drink). In each case study, the environmental impacts of the products were assessed with different assumptions about the packaging sizes and alternative materials. The studies especially considered the environmental impacts resulting from food waste generated by consumers as a function of the variable packaging options.



The food waste of other parts of the production chain of the studied products was also taken into account. A consumer survey was carried out to estimate the amounts of product waste generated in Finnish households connected to the three investigated products. The environmental impacts of the food products, household food waste and packaging were modelled by scenarios with varying rates of household food waste and different waste management options.



The results indicated that the significance of the production and post-consumer life of packaging was relatively low for climate change, eutrophication and acidification, in comparison with the production chain of the ham, dark bread and Soygurt. According to the results, packaging solutions that minimize the waste generation in households as well as in distribution and retail will lead to the lowest environmental impacts of the entire product-packaging chain. Therefore, it is important to design packages that protect the food properly and allow the consumer to use the product fully. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of household food waste in comparing environmental impacts of packaging alternatives

During 2010-2012 we carried out project Foodspill, concentrating on mapping the volume and composition of food waste in the Fin nish foodchain. 380 households weighed their avoidable food waste each day when they dispo sed of food during a two-week research period. The average annual food waste was 23 kg per person, and for households 120–160 kg per annum. For the food service sector the amount, type and origin of avoidable food waste was investigated in 72 restaurants. Restaurant workers pt a diary and weighed the food produced and wasted in a one week period. According to the results around 75–85 million kg of food was wasted annually in the Finnish food service sector. This covers about 20% of all food handled and prepared in restaurants and catering businesses . Th findings also suggest that the main reason for food waste in the sector is buffet servi ng loss. At the end of the project we estimated that every year consumers, the food service sector, the retail sector and the food industry together waste 335-460 million kg of food in Finlan d; 62–85 kg per Finnish citizen.

Food waste volume and composition in the Finnish supply chain : special focus on food service sector

This article presents the results from life cycle assessment case studies of packed food products made in the Futupack2010EKO Project, where environmental impacts of different food packaging options were investigated. Also environmental impact scenarios resulting from the unutilised food supply caused by food wasted in households as a function of different sizes of packaging were included. The studied environmental impacts were climate change, eutrophication and acidification. A consumer survey was carried out to determine and model the amount of food waste from consumers. The results of the LCA case studies showed that the production chain of the wasted food was usually a more significant source of environmental impacts than the packaging production chain. Packaging solutions that minimise the generation of food will lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts over the entire product-packaging-chain.

Role of Packaging in LCA of Food Products

Ruokahävikki suomalaisessa ruokaketjussa: Foodspill 2010-2012 -hankkeen loppuraportti

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