Determining the food waste behaviour of consumers in Northwest Turkey: a crosssectional Analysis Özge Can NIYAZ, Nevin DEMIRBAŞ

Özge Can Niyaz,Nevin Demirbaş

doi:10.30682/nm2003i

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine attitudes of consumers in the northwestern part of Turkey towards food waste behaviour. A structural equation model was used to analyze the attitudes and behaviour of consumers to food waste within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. It was found that food-related planning routines had no effect on food waste behaviour, but that food-related shopping routines encouraged food waste behaviour. On the other hand, the intention not to waste acted to discourage food waste behaviour in consumers. Accordingly, the tendency for consumers to buy more food than they need when shopping leads to an increase in food waste in the household, while the intention not to waste food acts to reduce the amount of waste. Moral attitudes increased the effect of shopping routines while perceived behaviour control had the effect of decreasing it. Intention not to waste was reduced by moral norms and enhanced by subjective norms. Food waste is an ever-increasing problem, but it is preventable. It is recommended that these factors be taken into consideration when developing campaigns, public information notices and workshops about food waste reduction.

Highlights

It can be concluded that, planning routines of consumers in the research area did not have an impact on food waste behavior, in other studies in the international literature, planning routines were effective on food waste
The results indicate that consumers’ food waste behaviour can be reduced by consumers’ awareness of increased food waste and drivers
The study provides valuable knowledge which can be used as a basis for developing campaigns that reducing food waste behaviour at the household level

Summary

Introduction

Food losses and waste occur mainly in industrialized ($ 680 billion ) and developing countries ($ 310 billion ), which results in a total economic loss of $ 990 billion (FAO, 2014). Food losses and waste contribute to other global problems such as wasted agricultural land resources, water, energy and labour, and environmental pollution with methane gas (Quested and Johnson, 2009; Kosseva, 2013; Hebrok and Boks, 2017; Lopolito et al, 2017; Schanes et al, 2018). Food losses and waste caused environmental damage to 250 km of water, 1.1 billion hectares of usable

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