Consumer behaviour towards suboptimal food products: a strategy for food waste reduction

Abstract

Purpose Food waste has received attention during the last decade, especially due to its environmental and social impacts. An important contributor to food waste is consumers’ low preference for purchase fruits and vegetables with unusual appearance, products with damaged package and products close to the expiration date, technically called suboptimal food products. Researches show that consumers tend to reject these products when buying food, increasing avoidable food waste. However, consumer considerations when deciding to buy or not to buy suboptimal food are still unknown. The purpose of this paper is to use two different approaches to investigate consumers’ perceptions towards suboptimal food and how they impact their acceptance. Design/methodology/approach The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of participants’ open-ended responses (282 answers), where participants were asked to write down the impressions they had about three suboptimal food images. The second phase explored consumers acceptance of suboptimal food through a focus group discussion. Findings Results reveal that considerations about suboptimal food are divergent, with some participants rejecting them because they are impelled to search for perfection when buying food products. However, some individuals are disposed to accept suboptimal products, mainly because they have concern with the environment and cook abilities. Originality/value As a whole, this study contributes for food waste reduction strategies and has implications for marketing actions.

Consumption Behavior and Residential Food Waste during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in Brazil

“…Another important factor when purchasing a product to eat is that it is fresh [52] and the aesthetic standard of fresh products [53], which may refer to food freshness, texture, smell, color, food appearance, or flavor [11]. Product labels provide information to the consumer about the conditions of the food, which they use to decide to eat or discard [27,30,53]. A distinction must be made between "expiration date", which indicates until when it is safe to consume, and "to consume preferably before", which is associated with the loss of product quality, such as freshness or other properties that do not represent a health risk [53,54].…”

“…A distinction must be made between "expiration date", which indicates until when it is safe to consume, and "to consume preferably before", which is associated with the loss of product quality, such as freshness or other properties that do not represent a health risk [53,54]. Additionally, information on labels influences behavior, as it clarifies the safety of consumption and subsequent disposal [11,21,27,29,55]. Thus, the awareness and knowledge of the label of products may help minimize food waste and make it easier for consumers to plan their food stocks and anticipate logistical issues, such as storage and refrigeration [21,27,54].…”

“…Additionally, information on labels influences behavior, as it clarifies the safety of consumption and subsequent disposal [11,21,27,29,55]. Thus, the awareness and knowledge of the label of products may help minimize food waste and make it easier for consumers to plan their food stocks and anticipate logistical issues, such as storage and refrigeration [21,27,54]. Meanwhile, it is verified that most consumers misinterpret the labeling of products and that the variation of date and terms of use resulted in a substantial amount of food waste [21,28,30,55].…”

“…Consumption and food wastage are issues that fall within the study of consumer behavior [27]. In addition, reality is multidisciplinary and involves multiple factors [11,15,20,21,28].…”

A Conceptual Framework to Analyze Food Loss and Waste within Food Supply Chains: An Operations Management Perspective

“…Customer behavior has been well examined in FLW studies. Factors, such as the patterns of human life, shopping habits [69], behavior types [70], knowledge of FLW, and culture [71] significantly impact FLW reduction performance [72].…”