Investigating the Determinants of Greek Households Food Waste Prevention Behaviour

Theodora Kritikou,Konstantinos Abeliotis,Katia Lasaridi,Dimosthenis Panagiotakos

doi:10.3390/su132011451

Abstract

Food waste prevention is globally an urgent policy priority. Multiple studies have demonstrated that in the developed world, households are the main producers of food waste along the food supply chain, being responsible for about half of the edible food wasted. This study aims to analyse consumers’ food waste behaviour and identify the factors that influence food waste generation in Greek households. A survey of 921 Greek households was conducted using a structured questionnaire based on the explanatory framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which is currently the most widely used cognitive model in environmental psychology. The study investigated the validity of relations between the main model parameters (attitude towards food waste, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, intention, and self-reported behaviour), in addition to knowledge regarding food waste prevention, general environmental knowledge, planning and shopping habits and demographic characteristics. Results demonstrated that food waste prevention Intention and food provisioning habits are direct determinants of food waste generation Behaviour. Intention was predominantly determined by General Environmental Attitude, followed by Perceived Behavioural Control, Attitude towards Food Waste, and Consequences/Outcomes of waste prevention, while Subjective Norms did not exert a statistically significant influence, indicating that formal and informal environmental education can positively influence food waste prevention behaviour through a combination of experiential actions and instruction. The findings of the study can inform policymaking and support the development of effective campaigns for food waste prevention at the consumption stage.

Highlights

Food loss and waste (FLW) constitute a crucial sustainability challenge
Food Loss (FL) is defined as the decrease in edible food mass that occurs at production, post-harvest, and processing level in the FSC, while Food Waste (FW) means the food that could have been consumed by people, but this did not happen, due to wrong behaviours at the end stages of the Food Supply Chain (FCS) [2,3,4]
Intention is in turn influenced by Attitude (ATT) towards the behaviour, that is, the individual’s positive or negative appreciation of performing the behaviour, Subjective Norms (SN), namely the perceived social pressure to perform the behaviour and the need to conform with the expectations of significant others, and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC), forming the behaviour, Subjective Norms (SN), namely the perceived social pressure to perform the behaviour and the need to conform with the expectations of significant others, and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC), i.e., the perception which someone has about his ability to apply the behaviour and about the influence of external conditions on his ability to adopt this behaviour (Figure 1) [27,28]

Summary

Introduction

Food loss and waste (FLW) constitute a crucial sustainability challenge. Development Goals (SDG) target 12.3, which requires halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 2030 [1,2,3]. Food Loss (FL) is defined as the decrease in edible food mass that occurs at production, post-harvest, and processing level in the FSC, while Food Waste (FW) means the food that could have been consumed by people, but this did not happen, due to wrong behaviours at the end stages of the Food Supply Chain (FCS) [2,3,4]. TPB allows for the incorporation of additional variables, provided that these variables make a i.e., the perception which someone has about his ability[28]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion