Association of Attitudes and Behaviour With Household Sociodemographic on Food Waste Management in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract

Introduction: Food waste has significant economic, environmental and social impacts. The increasing trend of eating habit in urban community has evidence this issues. Henceforth study on food waste management behavioural-attitude in Kuching is imperative. Methods: A questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, attitude and behaviour on food waste, as well environmental concerns on food waste were developed. A 407 respondents from Kuching city participated in this study. Results: The results revealed an association between gender and food waste management which included food purchasing behaviour (p-value=0.046) as well as influence of food expiration date on their behaviour (p-value = 0.003), but with very weak r correlations of r (405) = -0.099 and r (405) = 0.149, respectively. There was an association between age and environmental belief in the environmental dimension on food waste (p-value= 0.008) with a weak correlation of r (405) = 0.165. Lastly, education level with purchasing behaviour (p-value= 0.046), food preparation (p-value=0.000) and their environmental concern on food waste (p-value= 0.020) had very weak correlations of r (405) = 0.056, r (405) = -0.047, and r (405) = 0.002, respectively. Majority of the respondents demonstrated feeling responsible when they disposed of avoidable waste even though they intended to prevent such events. Conclusion: Overall, the result had highlighted favourable responses on the relationship between sociodemographic and community food waste generated. This finding could help the policymaker in improving their waste management approaches hence, benefiting the citizen in a whole.