Is there a decrease in food waste in a male high school cafeteria setting when students are offered incentives to eat their food?

Abstract

There appears to be an alarming amount of food waste among first world countries. This is especially true in school cafeterias in the United States. This food waste creates a double track of negative effects: the resources required to produce it and the effort required to dispose of it. A possible solution to reduce food waste in male teenagers is to create a positive reinforcement for eating their whole meal. This study determined the effect of offering an incentive as an intervention in a high school cafeteria setting to decrease individual food waste among high school students. Seventy four male high school students were studied under a control phase in which normal levels of individual food waste were assessed and under an experimental phase, in which a cookie was given if all the food was consumed. The incentive resulted in a 64.5% reduction in individual food waste in the high school cafeteria. This strategy could be implemented in similar settings to help decrease food waste.