PurposeThe goal of the present research was to resolve two problems with contemporary methods used to assess consumer food waste: the lack of established categories of food wasting behaviours and difficulties in assessing food waste. In Studies 1 A and 1 B, a five-factor questionnaire for measuring food wasting behaviours was developed. Study 2 and Exploratory analyses verified whether the questionnaire allows for predicting the amount of wasted meat, dairy and bakery and a range of socioeconomic characteristics.Design/methodology/approachBased on pre-registered studies, a new questionnaire for measuring the frequency of food wasting behaviours, the Food Wasting Behaviours Questionnaire (FWBQ), was developed.FindingsThe results provided evidence that behaviours associated with food wasting could be narrowed down to five distinctive basic categories: (1) discarding food because of its' unpalatability; (2) preventing food waste through buying only the necessities; (3) preventing food waste through planning; (4) preventing food waste through sharing and (5) preventing food waste through feeding animals. The FWBQ allowed for investigating the socio-economic factors that influence food wasting behaviour. Finally, the FWBQ allowed for predicting the amount of wasted meat, dairy and bakery products. Also, particular factors were associated with a range of socioeconomic characteristics.Originality/valueThe FWBQ has been shown to be an inexpensive and easy-to-use method for systematising distinct categories of food wasting behaviours and demonstrating their determinants. The study takes an empirical approach (rather than intuitive) to distinguish separate categories of food wasting.

Measuring food wasting behaviour at the consumer level is challenging. Most existing methods focus on food wasting at the household level, which in turn limits the possibility to study the situational and individual factors shaping food wasting behaviour in a single person. To fill this gap, we conducted a series of pre-registered studies in which we developed the Food Wasting Behaviours Questionnaire (FWBQ), an inexpensive method suitable for assessing and monitoring food wasting behaviour at the single-person level. We found that a wide range of behaviours associated with food wasting could be narrowed down to five distinctive basic categories: (1) discarding food because of its’ unpalatability; (2) preventing food waste through buying only the necessities; (3) preventing food waste through planning meals and groceries; (4) preventing food waste through sharing food with others; and (5) preventing food waste through feeding animals. The FWBQ allowed us to investigate the socio-economic factors that influence food wasting behaviour, such as food insecurity. Furthermore, because we started our research programme before the pandemic, we were able to conduct a natural experiment and observe that people changed their food wasting behaviour during the pandemic. Finally, we found that FWBQ allowed for predicting the amount of wasted meat, dairy and bakery products. In summary, we have demonstrated the potential utility of the FWBQ, an inexpensive and easy-to-use method for predicting the factors and antecedents of food wasting behaviour.