Abstract
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.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic on 11 March2020 [1]
A total of 946 individuals residing in the United States who self-identified as the primary food purchaser in their household completed the survey
Because some participants reported increased food waste during the pandemic cause some participants reported increased food waste during the pandemic and in alignand in alignment with the second aim of our study, we explored the factors associated with ment with the second aim of our study, we explored the factors associated with increased increased food waste, as households with characteristics associated with increased food food waste, as households with characteristics associated with increased food waste might waste might benefit from targeted food waste reduction interventions
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global pandemic on 11 March2020 [1]. States, marking the beginning of a period of dramatic disruptions in the daily lives of most people [2] Such change is likely to have impacts on a variety of behaviors that contribute to the well-being of households and their members, existing studies on the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on various food- and health-related behaviors have shown mixed results; some studies have shown improvements in these behaviors [3,4], while others have revealed the adoption of less desirable lifestyle habits [5,6,7]. It is possible that pandemicrelated shifts could have occurred in relation to household-level food waste This is a potentially important area to explore given that food waste is increasingly recognized as contributing to adverse environmental and economic outcomes, so much so that the United Nations identified a 50% reduction in global food waste as one of the 17 Sustainable
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