Domestic Food Waste Research Articles

원심분리를 통한 음식물쓰레기 바이오차의 탈수 특성

Various methods of technology for using food waste as energy have been developed, but their utility as fuel is low due to the salt concentration contained in food waste. As of 2019, the daily amount of domestic food waste is approximately 14,000 tons, and as the amount of food waste increases, it is necessary to develop technology for processing a large amount of food. Bio-char made from food waste can be a good fuel with high calorific value if salt is removed. In this study, a centrifugal separator was used to remove chloride ions from bio-char, and as a result of the experiment, the higher heating value(HHV) was improved through centrifugation. Food waste bio-char showed higher calorific value as the particle size was smaller, and higher calorific value was improved by 15~25% after centrifugation than before centrifugation. As for the chlorine component removal efficiency before and after centrifugation, the smaller the particle size, the higher the chloride ion removal efficiency. After centrifugation, the moisture of bio-char was 21.7~30.4%, and the ultimate analyzes of bio-char were found the most in the order of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and no sulfur component was detected. As a result of water quality analysis, the dewatering water after centrifugation showed the degree of contamination of sewage was shown.

The problem of solid waste: origins, composition, disposal, recycling, and reusing

Solid waste disposal is a major challenge in many industrialized and developing nations, both in metropolitan regions as well as rural ones. The collection and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a serious issue facing metropolitan areas in many nations today. An effective MSW management strategy must satisfy all of these criteria: financial viability; technical feasibility; social and legal acceptability; and ecological friendliness. Small and large cities alike have a major difficulty in dealing with solid waste management.
 One of the current study topics is the valuation of food organic waste. Existing waste disposal methods include the typical landfill, incineration, composting, and other methods of handling solid waste. Composting and anaerobic digestion have traditionally been the most widely employed methods for the treatment and exploitation of the organic part of MSW (AD). The amount of organic solid waste (OSW) being generated globally is rising at an astronomical rate. Agricultural waste, domestic food waste, human and animal wastes, etc. comprise the majority of OSW. They're often used as animal feed, disposed of in landfills, or burnt. OAWs are made up of protein-, mineral-, and sugar-rich components that may be employed as substrates or raw materials in other processes.

Food waste handling perception in Indonesia: communicating the sustainability of Food and environment

Every week, Indonesia discards approximately 10 million pieces of bread, cakes, and cookies, equating to 292,000 tons of CO2 emissions similar to Indonesia’s annual CO2 emissions. Due to a lack of resources and infrastructure, most impoverished countries rely on antiquated technologies such as anaerobic digestion (AD) to handle food waste. Bakery trash is a biologically formed organic waste that poses a serious threat to public health and the environment, including natural ecosystem contamination. The goal of this study is to find out how much effort Indonesians put into garbage management. How do they spread the word about leftovers through the media? How do they know about waste, particularly bread waste? As well as community-wide corrective steps to protect the environment from domestic food waste management. This study employs a quantitative approach. In order to send 100 questionnaires to persons in Indonesia, purposive sampling was used. Surveys are carried out using Google forms, which require a valid Google email address in order to ensure that each person only takes the survey once. The study’s conclusion is that food waste management efforts among Indonesians are hampered by the public’s lack of understanding of food waste management and disposal information in the media. The research sample understands the process of recycling food into pet food when it becomes garbage, according to their perceptions about the end process of food. In terms of food waste awareness, the majority of the participants in this study were aware that food waste is disposed of in landfills rather than being recycled.

Dynamic changes in anaerobic digester metabolic pathways and microbial populations during acclimatisation to increasing ammonium concentrations

Transitions in microbial community structure in response to increasing ammonia concentrations were determined by monitoring mesophilic anaerobic digesters seeded with a predominantly acetoclastic methanogenic community from a sewage sludge digester. Ammonia concentration was raised by switching the feed to source segregated domestic food waste and applying two organic loading rates (OLR) and hydraulic retention times (HRT) in paired digesters. One of each pair was dosed with trace elements (TE) known to be essential to the transition, with the other unsupplemented digester acting as a control. Samples taken during the trial were used to determine the metabolic pathway to methanogenesis using 14C labelled acetate. Partitioning of 14C between the product gases was interpreted via an equation to indicate the proportion produced by acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic routes. Archaeal and selected bacterial groups were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing, to determine relative abundance and diversity. Acclimatisation for digesters with TE was relatively smooth, but OLR and HRT influenced both metabolic route and community structure. The 14C ratio could be used quantitatively and, when interpreted alongside archaeal community structure, showed that at longer HRT and lower loading Methanobacteriaceae were dominant and hydrogenotrophic activity accounted for 77% of methane production. At the higher OLR and shorter HRT, Methanosarcinaceae were dominant with the 14C ratio indicating simultaneous production of methane by acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic pathways: the first reported observation of this in digestion under mesophilic conditions. Digesters without TE supplementation showed similar initial changes but, as expected failed to complete the transition to stable operation.

Domestic Use Simulation and Secondary Shelf Life Assessment of Industrial Pesto alla genovese.

The secondary shelf life (SSL) is defined as the time after package opening during which the food product retains a required level of quality. The SSL, indicated in labels as “best if used within x days after opening”, could lead to domestic food waste if not correctly evaluated. In this context, the SSL of two brands of industrial shelf-stable pesto products (with an indicated SSL of 5 days) was studied through a domestic use simulation performed in five households under two scenarios simulating real opening and storage conditions. The quality of pesto after opening was assessed through microbiological and sensory analyses, determination of instrumental colour parameters, pH and volatiles profiling. For both pesto sauces tested, a SSL ≥ 20 days was proven. Irrespective of the intensity of use (scenarios 1 and 2), the pesto was microbiologically stable: the maximum count for total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (TMB) observed during 20 days of storage was 9.64 ± 1.7 × 102 CFU/g, starting from a commercially stable product. Colour parameters L* and ΔE did not change significantly during storage (p > 0.05), while the a* and BI values significantly changed (p < 0.05) during the first 5 days, and then stabilized during the rest of the household storage. Nevertheless, the slight colour modifications were not perceived by the sensory panel. Moreover, sensory assessors were not able to discern pesto samples stored for up to 20 days after first opening, from a just-opened reference sample, proving that the sensory appreciation of pesto was not influenced by the time after opening. The results of this study suggest the possibility to significantly extend or even omit the SSL indications for industrial pesto sauces. The objective assessment of SSL could have impressive practical outcomes both for the industry and the end user. The elongation of the SSL on the food label might increase food sustainability, thanks to the potential reduction of food wastes, thus giving added value to the commercial products. In addition, the end user could benefit the increase of the useful period for the food consumption after first opening, with significant domestic food waste reduction, reduced household stock turnover and consequent cost savings.

Domestic Food Waste and Covid-19 Concern: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic rapidly and dramatically disrupted household behaviours in almost all areas and, among these, eating behaviours and daily food patterns have also been radically altered. All reported changes have potential effects in terms of food waste, which is a global problem that mainly occurs at household level. Many scholars attempted to understand the antecedents of food waste in the framework of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). In this paper we follow this strain of research by focussing on two different behaviours, suggested by the Waste Framework Directive of the EU, namely (a) reducing servings and (b) using leftovers, which may be predicted by the intention to reduce food waste. An online questionnaire containing the key constructs of the TPB and the concern towards the pandemic was administered to a sample of 201 Italian consumers. Results show that the TPB model was confirmed for both behaviours while the Covid-19 concern had no direct effect. However, in the case of portion reduction, there is a significant interaction between concern and intention not to waste food. That is, the effect of intention on reducing servings is increasing as the level of concern increases. Therefore, some indications on how to address food waste policies are drawn.

The Performance Evaluation on Co-Digestion of Domestic Sewage Sludge and Food Waste for Methane Yield and Kinetics Analysis

Sewage sludge and food waste; are organic wastes suitable for the anaerobic digestion. However, the digestion of sewage sludge and food waste as solely substrate is having a drawback in term of methane yield. Therefore, many researchers combined these two wastes as a co-substrate and used in co-digestion. This study focused to evaluate the anaerobic co-digestion of domestic sewage sludge (in form of primary and secondary sewage sludge) with food waste under mesophilic temperature in a batch assay. Two series of batch biochemical methane potential (BMP) test were conducted using the Automatic Methane Potential Test System (AMPTS II). Each set are labelled with BMP 1(PSS:FW) and BMP 2 (SSS:FW). The BMP tests were monitored automatically until the methane production is insignificant. Using the data observed in the laboratory, the kinetic paremeters were calculated. Also, the First-order and Modified Gompertz modeling were included to predict the anaerobic digestion performance. Finding showed that BMP 1(PSS:FW) have better performance with respect to the higher ultimate methane yield and methane production rate as compared to BMP 2 (SSS:FW). Besides, the kinetic parameters from laboratory work and modeling were slightly different. In which the kinetic paremetes from modelling is lesser. However, both modelling are well fitted to the experimental data with high correlation coefficient, R2 ranged from 0.993 to 0.997.

Greenhouse gas emissions from food systems: building the evidence base

New estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the food system were developed at the country level, for the period 1990–2018, integrating data from crop and livestock production, on-farm energy use, land use and land use change, domestic food transport and food waste disposal. With these new country-level components in place, and by adding global and regional estimates of energy use in food supply chains, we estimate that total GHG emissions from the food system were about 16 CO2eq yr−1 in 2018, or one-third of the global anthropogenic total. Three quarters of these emissions, 13 Gt CO2eq yr−1, were generated either within the farm gate or in pre- and post-production activities, such as manufacturing, transport, processing, and waste disposal. The remainder was generated through land use change at the conversion boundaries of natural ecosystems to agricultural land. Results further indicate that pre- and post-production emissions were proportionally more important in developed than in developing countries, and that during 1990–2018, land use change emissions decreased while pre- and post-production emissions increased. We also report results on a per capita basis, showing world total food systems per capita emissions decreasing during 1990–2018 from 2.9 to 2.2 t CO2eq cap−1, with per capita emissions in developed countries about twice those in developing countries in 2018. Our findings also highlight that conventional IPCC categories, used by countries to report emissions in the National GHG inventory, systematically underestimate the contribution of the food system to total anthropogenic emissions. We provide a comparative mapping of food system categories and activities in order to better quantify food-related emissions in national reporting and identify mitigation opportunities across the entire food system.

To keep or not to keep? Sorting out leftovers from a refrigerator

Most literature on food waste shows that food that ends up in the garbage can is often no longer considered as enjoyable, or even as edible. In this paper, we decided to focus on assessments of whether leftover food is still considered as worth eating, to provide a better understanding of the production of domestic food waste. We constructed a pluridisciplinary approach, combining sensory analysis and sociology. The first part was conducted in a test kitchen under controlled conditions: 50 participants had to sort out and decide to keep or to throw away different types of refrigerated leftovers. The second part used in-depth interviews with half of these participants (N = 25) to explore their food habits and perceptions and handling of leftovers at home. The first section of the paper presents the theoretical framework of the study, which is grounded in practice theory. Then we detail the methodology and the results. We show that sorting out leftovers is a process mobilizing embodied knowledge and resulting from domestic practices implemented to avoid waste, such as storing or reusing leftovers. In the discussion, we analyze the sorting of refrigerated food products as a compound practice, situated at the intersection of provisioning, cooking, meal organization, and judgment of taste (Warde, 2013). Using this theoretical framework enables us to understand the heterogeneity observed in the outcome of the sorting process as the result of its weak degree of regulation. The sorting out practice is thus consistent with different modes of engagement such as food waste prevention, health maintenance, or providing enjoyable family meals. We conclude by providing suggestions of policy recommendations regarding domestic refrigeration, food storage, and assessment practices.

Eco-Feedback for Food Waste Reduction in a Student Residence

Eco-feedback aims at increasing awareness of resource use to encourage conservation. A growing area of concern in sustainable living is food waste, and many new institutional waste receptacles incorporate waste sorting and recycling instructions for waste management. However, little attention has been paid to the design of encouraging awareness of waste in the home, particularly at the point of food waste. We explored the design challenges and effectiveness of novel eco-feedback techniques at the point of food waste through an in-situ study in a university residence. Our E-COmate system captures and visualizes domestic food waste data for more readily comprehensible and accessible information within a home environment embedded in an existing waste bin. Four E-COmate smart bins were introduced, deployed and evaluated for 8 weeks at a student residence in Canada. The aim of the study was to see whether a system like E-COmate could impact food waste patterns and awareness, and if so, to what extent it engages consumers. To explore its impact, a mix of methods was adopted. Waste audits were conducted to explore waste changes. Retrospective interviews were carried out to gain insights in residences' reflections and motivations. We show that E-COmate had a positive impact on participants' awareness of and behavior toward their food waste. Participants who had E-COmate installed in their kitchens showed overall a significant decrease in food waste and in particular a decrease of almost 32% in edible or once edible food waste, and a 69% decrease in generated compost waste during the last 2 weeks compared to the first 2 baseline weeks. Furthermore, while our control group showed an increase of 244% of waste of starches and grains toward the last 2 weeks (i.e., the end of term) compared to the 2 baseline weeks, the intervention group only showed an increase of 4.5% in waste of grains and starches. Eco-feedback further engaged residences in reducing food waste practices starting at the grocery store (e.g., by buying in smaller portions). In sum, eco-feedback as provided by E-COmate had positive impacts on reducing food waste. These findings are a result of increased awareness, the constant presence and immediacy of E-COmate served as a reminder, and their understanding of how much they actually waste as a group. Their awareness was reflected in how they adapted their shopping behavior as one way to reduce waste at home.

The characteristics and in-sewer transport potential of solids derived from domestic food waste disposers.

This study aims to assess the transportability of food waste disposer particles within a sewer system. A series of laboratory studies has examined the physical characteristics of solid particles derived from domestic food waste disposers. Particle size distributions and maximum settling velocity characteristics were measured for 18 common food types, and stored in a publicly accessible database. Particle size distributions are shown to fit well with a 2-parameter Gamma distribution. Settling velocity is generally higher for larger particles, except when particle density and sphericity change. For most food types, particle specific gravity was close to unity. Egg shell particles had a significantly higher specific gravity. This information, combined with the particle size data have been used to show that there is a very low likelihood of food waste particle deposition in sewers during normal operational flows, other than temporary transient deposits of egg shell particles.

Love Food, Hate Waste? Ambivalence towards Food Fosters People’s Willingness to Waste Food

Food waste is the origin of major social and environmental issues. In industrial societies, domestic households are the biggest contributors to this problem. But why do people waste food although they buy and value it? Answering this question is mandatory to design effective interventions against food waste. So far, however, many interventions have not been based on theoretical knowledge. Integrating food waste literature and ambivalence research, we propose that domestic food waste can be understood via the concept of ambivalence—the simultaneous presence of positive and negative associations towards the same attitude object. In support of this notion, we demonstrated in three pre-registered experiments that people experienced ambivalence towards non-perishable food products with expired best before dates. The experience of ambivalence was in turn associated with an increased willingness to waste food. However, two informational interventions aiming to prevent people from experiencing ambivalence did not work as intended (Experiment 3). We hope that the outlined conceptualization inspires theory-driven research on why and when people dispose of food and on how to design effective interventions.

Eggshell Membrane Assisted CdS Nanoparticles for Manganese Removal in Water Treatment

Domestic food waste chicken eggshells can produce naturally abundant protein-based eggshell membranes (ESMs), which is used as a less-explored source of sulphur to synthesize hexagonal CdS nanoparticles (NPs) under 365 nm (UVA) light irradiation. The perspective of CdS NPs synthesis in the way of UVA light irradiation soakage technique using ESM is distinctive compare to other traditional methods. Various physicochemical methods were employed to validate the formation of CdS NP using ESM assisted process. The obtained NPs exhibit an average particle size of ~5 nm as obtained from the transmission electron microscopy study. The capability of the synthesized CdS NPs was further explored in the catalysis reaction for the decomposition of KMnO4, considered as toxic Mn VII (violet) ion source at room temperature. The degradation results as monitored by UV-Vis spectrophotometry analysis confirms the CdS NPs exhibit excellent catalytic activity towards the reduction of KMnO4, toxic Mn VII (violet) ion to MnO2 as non-toxic Mn IV (brownish yellow) ion in aqueous solution (pH 7.0) at room temperature by 50 min. The KMnO4 decomposition reaction follows a pseudo-first-order reaction having the rate constant value of 1.9 x 10 -2 min -1 . This study encourages the potential use of natural waste materials for wastewater treatment.

Comprehensive Measurement of Italian Domestic Food Waste in a European Framework

Food management is an inefficient activity, and households are the major contributors responsible for food waste across the food supply chain. Ten years remain to halve household food waste, as recommended by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Up to now, Italian investigations into household food waste have been research activities with limitations in measurement and sampling. The need to establish a monitoring system led the Italian Observatory on Food Surplus, Recovery and Waste to apply a methodology that permits comparison with other European countries. In 2018, a survey involving a representative sample of 1142 Italian households was carried out. The majority of respondents (77%) reported that they had wasted 370 g of food during the last week, evidence in line with data from the Netherlands and progressively different from what was found in Germany, Hungary, and Spain. Perishable products, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, and nonalcoholic drinks, were mainly wasted. The most frequently disposed foods were unused (43.2%) or partly used (30.3%). As for possible causes, household food waste was significantly associated with preventive practices and ability. This study endeavored to segment household food waste based on possible drivers and barriers to preventive action, setting the stage for future monitoring, supporting policy action, and educational intervention.

Sustainable Second-Generation Bioethanol Production from Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Domestic Food Waste Using Pichia anomala as Biocatalyst

In the current study, a domestic food waste containing more than 50% of carbohydrates was assessed as feedstock to produce second-generation bioethanol. Aiming to the maximum exploitation of the carbohydrate fraction of the waste, its hydrolysis via cellulolytic and amylolytic enzymatic blends was investigated and the saccharification efficiency was assessed in each case. Fermentation experiments were performed using the non-conventional yeast Pichia anomala (Wickerhamomyces anomalus) under both separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) modes to evaluate the conversion efficiencies and ethanol yields for different enzymatic loadings. It was shown that the fermentation efficiency of the yeast was not affected by the fermentation mode and was high for all handlings, reaching 83%, whereas the enzymatic blend containing the highest amount of both cellulolytic and amylolytic enzymes led to almost complete liquefaction of the waste, resulting also in ethanol yields reaching 141.06 ± 6.81 g ethanol/kg waste (0.40 ± 0.03 g ethanol/g consumed carbohydrates). In the sequel, a scale-up fermentation experiment was performed with the highest loading of enzymes in SHF mode, from which the maximum specific growth rate, μmax, and the biomass yield, Yx/s, of the yeast from the hydrolyzed waste were estimated. The ethanol yields that were achieved were similar to those of the respective small scale experiments reaching 138.67 ± 5.69 g ethanol/kg waste (0.40 ± 0.01 g ethanol/g consumed carbohydrates).

Activated carbonaceous materials from tea waste and its removal capacity of indigo carmine present in solution: synthesis, batch and optimization study

The present work determines efficiency of domestic food waste like tea waste in removing indigo carmine from synthetic textile wastewater. Carbonaceous material (tea waste) has been employed and it showed removal percentage of indigo carmine at 90% through adsorption process. Carbonaceous material was chemically activated by using modified Hummer’s method and it was observed through Scanning Electron Microscopic image, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller analysis that revealed that the modified biochar is comparably similar to graphene oxide (GO). Various experimental parameters are evaluated for the removal efficiency of the synthesized adsorbent under the present study. Results of the experiments performed using the GO-like adsorbent synthesized from tea waste confirmed potential efficiency of adsorption of indigo carmine dye from synthetic waste water solution. The adsorption mechanism has been analysed by fitting the experimental data in different adsorption isotherm and kinetic models. The results indicated that the adsorption followed Langmuir isotherm model with maximum uptake of 20 mg g− 1 and pseudo second order kinetic model with the best correlation coefficient. The thermodynamic study showed the dye removal to be spontaneous and endothermic.

Desperdicio de alimentos y tiempo disponible para trabajo doméstico. ¿Están correlacionados? Estudio exploratorio en un contexto urbano

Objetivo: bajo la perspectiva de la economía circular, la presente investigación aborda una posible causa de la pérdida y desperdicio de alimentos que no ha sido analizada, esto es la falta de tiempo disponible de las familias para realizar trabajo doméstico. Metodología: en este estudio exploratorio se eligió un enfoque cualitativo descriptivo, con el objetivo de analizar la correlación entre la disponibilidad de tiempo para realizar trabajo doméstico en los hogares y el desperdicio de alimentos en los mismos. Para la recopilación de datos se realizó una encuesta a una muestra de hogares de una colonia de clase media en Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. Posteriormente, se llevó a cabo un análisis descriptivo y correlacional de las respuestas obtenidas. Resultados: se descubrió que hay ciertas actividades que implican un gasto de tiempo, que tienen que ver directamente con el trabajo doméstico –como revisar la despensa, hacer un inventario de los alimentos, escribir una lista de mandados, entre otras– que sí posee una relación con la cantidad de alimentos que se desperdician. Estas pequeñas actividades, con el tiempo, se convierten en hábitos de consumo inteligente. Limitaciones: se necesita una investigación confirmatoria adicional. Conclusiones: en conclusión, sobre la base de los datos obtenidos a través de la encuesta, es posible identificar dicha correlación positiva en este caso.

Evaluation of Determinants of Food Waste in Family Households in the Greater Porto Area Based on Self-Reported Consumption Practices

Despite food waste occurring along the entire food supply chain, a significant proportion occurs in domestic settings. Large quantities of domestic food waste have been attributable to consumer behaviors during buying, cooking, consumption, and disposal. The main objective of this research was to understand the major determinants of household food waste from families in the north of Portugal. A convenience sample was used, which was drawn from households in the Greater Porto Area. Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire that included three groups of structured questions related to perceived behavior and attitudes towards food consumption, leftover usage, and food waste. Exploratory data analysis was used to identify underlying dimensions. No relationships were found between socio-demographic data and food waste, buying behavior, or destination/use of leftovers. The majority of the participants reported a high level of planning of their grocery shopping. Fruits and vegetables presented the highest frequency of consumption, followed by sources of carbohydrates and sources of proteins. The storage of cooked food from different food groups presented a single factor, grouping the majority of the individual food leftovers, going from fruits and vegetables to sources of carbohydrates and proteins. The reported levels of wastage of the different food products were grouped into three dimensions: waste of vegetables, waste of protein sources, and waste of sources of carbohydrates. Waste of precooked foods emerged as an independent item, and it was the individual item with the highest frequency. The families studied reported a positive attitude concerning buying, consumption, and wastage, revealing a particular awareness of food waste and its social and environmental impact.

The Effect of Fermentation Process on Physical Properties of Organic Material from Domestic Food Waste

Organic material produced from domestic food waste can be functionalized as useful product such as fish feed by fermentation process. The fermentation process changed several properties such as nutrition content and particle size. Here, we reported the effect of fermentation process on physical properties of organic material from domestic food waste. In this study, fermented product will be conducted to become fish feed. The fermentation was performed by using commercial probiotic BIOM-S with various levels of probiotic from 0 to 10% using solid substrate fermentation method. The physical properties including nutritional content, particle size, distance between particles, and functional group of fermented organic material from domestic food waste were investigated. After fermentation, it is found that the best level of probiotic use is 8%, which are crude protein increased from 15.58% to 26.16% and crude fiber content decreased from 4.88% to 3.71%. The average particle sizes and distance between particles of fermented domestic food waste fermented by 8% probiotic were 147.723 µm and 1708.802 µm, respectively, while the functional group did not change after fermentation. The present result indicated that fermentation process effected to improve the quality of organic material from domestic food waste.

Characteristics and Determinants of Domestic Food Waste: A Representative Diary Study across Germany

As it is the case in many industrialized countries, household food waste accounts for a large share of total food waste in Germany. Within this study, the characteristics of edible and inedible domestic food waste, the reasons for discarding food and the potential influence of socio-demographic factors on food waste generation are assessed. A data set of 6853 households who participated in a diary study in 2016 and 2017 was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics, parametric tests, and linear regression. The results indicate that perishable products such as vegetables, fruits, and bread are mainly affected by disposal. Moreover, household food waste occurs due to quantity problems at purchase for small households and quantity problems at home for larger households and households with children. Despite statistically significant differences in food waste amounts between household lifecycle stages, age of the head of household, household size, and size category of the municipality, socio-demographic factors have a limited power in predicting a household’s food waste level. The study has important implications for food waste policy and research regarding the issues of food waste prevention measures, quantification methodologies, and monitoring implementation.