Behavioral and Demographic Antecedents to Household Food Waste

Abstract

Researches about antecedents to household food waste generation are increasingly becoming popular. Various dimensions, such as food handling, purchasing behavior, waste management behavior, consumer values, the role of external cues and many other sets of predictors, including demographic variables, were identified by scholars as major influencers of food waste generation. However, there are conflicting inferences about the identified antecedents just as there remains no consensus as to how age, gender and income affect food waste. Moreover, there is limited number of literature on the influence of consumer values on food waste and in view of the local context. With the objective of augmenting extant literature, a survey of 180 primary purchasers of households was conducted, utilizing Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) as a statistical tool. Findings of this research reveal that food habits, such as food conservation and response to food condition the acceptance of expiration date-based priced and suboptimal food, are very important to determine the extent of food waste generation. Environmental concern shows a positive effect on materialism, which supports literature positing that people who expressed deep environmental concern do not necessarily have low materialistic values and vice versa. Environmental concern could be a normative belief, which is an individuals perception of peoples expectations that are socially accepted and desirable. Thus, the respondents may have an environmental concern because this is the right behavior, but this does not hinder individuals in satisfying their material life domain.