Household Food Waste Research: The Current State of the Art and a Guided Tour for Further Development

Abstract

Decreasing food waste is an important contribution to the practical achievement of Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The last decades witnessed a dynamic expansion of food waste-related publications, parallel with this studies, systematic reviews and bibliometric analyses had been published on this topic. The novelty of the current publication is threefold: 1) it summarizes recent publications, and puts their results into development context; 2) applies the triangulation method by analyzing the food waste-based literature from the aspect of epistemological development, structural composition and scientometric mapping, 3) based on in-depth research of the literature and the determination of the most important ways of its development, the key steps of a modern waste research project as a function of research goals as well as available financial resources are outlined. The bibliometric research based on nearly three thousand resources has shown a considerable geographic disparity in food waste research: these topics are investigated mainly in developed and emerging countries. Bibliometric mapping highlights the importance of the application of qualitative methods for exploring motivational drivers and actual behaviour of households. A general workflow for food waste research is suggested by the authors based on a study carried out in developed countries. This method can be considered as a general, flexible framework, which could serve as a common platform for experts. The framework can be used independently from the of economic development level of the countries but it is especially useful for researchers in the global South because experiences gained by developed countries opens a favourable possibility to conceptualise, plan, realise and publish their food-waste related research.

Sustainable consumption from a domestic food purchasing perspective among Generation Z

“…In addition, demographic changes and the growth of the world population are likely to make the sustainability problems arising from food systems even more serious in the future. For example, agricultural production will have to cope with the impacts of climate change, increasingly challenging land use conflicts, and rising health and social costs at both individual and societal levels [1,2].…”

Fogyasztói élelmiszerhulladék-csökkentési programok Európában

“…Az elmúlt 20 évben számos, a fogyasztói és háztartási élelmiszer-pazarlás okait vizsgáló nemzetközi tudományos közlemény látott napvilágot [20,21,22,23,24]. A kutatók megannyi befolyásoló tényezőt vizsgáltak, így például a demográfiai jellemzőket, mellyel kapcsolatban többen megállapították, hogy a tehetősebbek, a fiatalok, a férfiak, valamint a kis gyermeket nevelő családok többnyire pazarlóbbak [19,25,26,27].…”

Conflicting Issues of Sustainable Consumption and Food Safety: Risky Consumer Behaviors in Reducing Food Waste and Plastic Packaging

“…EU-level and national communication campaigns about the food-safety risks of eliminating plastic packaging are needed to tackle sustainability–safety controversies. For the time being, food-safety risks of zero/low-waste movements are not as widely researched as the topic of household food waste [ 103 , 104 ]. However, the primary direction of risk communication can be set.…”