Food Waste Generation at Household Level: Results of a Survey among Employees of Two European Research Centers in Italy and Germany

Abstract

There is a broad consensus in literature that private households are significant contributors to the total amount of food waste in the EU. Thus, any strategy to meaningfully combat food wastage must put the end consumer in the center of prevention activities. This requires deeper insights into people's motivations to discard still edible food and knowledge about potential barriers to reduce wasting. This paper reports on results of an online survey among two European research centers in Italy (JRC/Ispra) and Germany (KIT/Karlsruhe). The focus of the survey was on households' behaviors (shopping, eating, and food preparation habits) and its influence on the generation of food waste. Furthermore, reasons for the disposal of food as well as measures and technologies most needed to prevent wastage were discussed. The results of the survey are analyzed, especially with regard to two questions: (1) Are there considerable differences between Ispra and Karlsruhe? (2) Are there considerable similarities or inconsistencies with the results of previous studies?

Food Wastage by Tunisian Households

“…The most frequented stores for purchasing groceries in Tunisia are large supermarkets and mini-markets (39.5 and 37%, respectively) and only 23% for local markets. Previous studies found that the amount of food thrown away is highest when people exclusively shop in large supermarkets, decreases when purchasing takes place in different shopping facilities, and is lowest when people also grow their own food (Jörissen et al, 2015). This would suggest that people who spend a lot of time shopping in small shops or local markets attribute a higher value to foods than people who prefer the quick and convenient large supermarkets.…”

“…Only 29.2% of households use a shopping list. According to Jörissen et al (2015), the amount of food waste is higher when no shopping list is used. In general, the highest percentage (more than 30%) of foods that are thrown away sometimes or often relates to fruit, vegetables, cereals, legumes, milk, bread, fish, roots and tubers.…”

Representations of Food Waste in Reality Food Television: An Exploratory Analysis of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

“…It provides a compelling rationale to broaden our understanding of how, and why, food comes to be waste in the first place. However, there is considerable potential to reduce food waste via household level intervention in medium/high-income countries, [1,6]. This poses an interesting challenge, as domestic food waste is embedded within complex socio-cultural processes [7][8][9].…”

“…Research conducted in the UK found that food became waste as culturally embedded notions of appropriate provisioning, care, and safety competed with the socio-temporal demands of modern life [10]. In European research, householders identified factors such as temporal work/life imbalances, preferences of other (usually younger) household members, and a disconnection between household needs and product choices Sustainability 2017, 9, 1139 2 of 10 (such as not being able to purchase desired smaller products) as barriers to implementing food waste prevention strategies [6].…”

“…Interventions are usually practical [1,6] and theoretically uninformed. Yet, the definitions and understandings of food waste are not straightforward [2,11].…”