The Effect of Food Consumption Management on the Reduction of Food Waste in Indonesia

Abstract

Food waste is one of the important problems faced by households because it is related to the availability of food in the community. In addition, food wastage is suspected to be closely related to the ineffective and inefficient of food consumption management. This study aims to determine food consumption management, food waste and the effect of food consumption management on food waste in four major cities in Indonesia, namely Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Denpasar. The latent variable of food consumption management is reflected by four indicators, they are food planning, processing and storage, and food waste disposal. Meanwhile, the latent variable of food waste is reflected by three indicators, including opportunities for food wastage, knowledge about food wastage, and skills in managing food. Indicators in each latent variable is measured using a Likert scale. The data collection method is convenient sampling to get 150 households’ sample from the four big cities. Food consumption management and food waste were analysed descriptive qualitatively, while the effect of food consumption management on food waste was analysed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results showed that the food planning indicators on the latent variable of food consumption management were in the very good category, while the other three indicators, namely food processing, food storage and food waste disposal, were in good category. The three indicators on the latent variable of food waste consisting of opportunities for food waste, knowledge about food waste and food management skills are included in good category. Furthermore, the results of the study show that good management of food consumption has a positive and significant effect on the efforts to reduce food waste at the household level in four major cities in Indonesia.