Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior Regarding Food Waste, Date Labels, and Dumpster Diving: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

One of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is "Responsible Consumption and Production." This goal specifically aims to, "Ensure sustainable consumption and production," (United Nations, 2016). One key factor in successfully moving towards this goal involves better educating people about the issues surrounding food waste. The purpose of this research is to explore the public's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding issues related to food waste. Food WasteFood loss is a growing concern both nationally and globally. Increases in world population, decreases in available landfill space, and economic loss are some of the factors contributing to heightened interest in this issue. Americans send excessive amounts of edible food to landfills annually, approximately 21 percent of the total waste stream (U.S. EPA, 2016). In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 31 percent of all of the food produced in the US never made it into the mouths of consumers (Buzby, Wells, & Hyman, 2014). Beyond the United States other countries face the same problem (Porpino, Parente, & Wansink, 2015). Food loss is defined as "the amount of edible food, postharvest, that is available for human consumption but is not consumed for any reason," while food waste is considered "a component of food loss and occurs when an edible item goes unconsumed, such as discarded by retailers due to blemishes or plate waste discarded by consumers," (Buzby, Wells, & Hyman, 2014, p.1). Food waste may come from a variety of sources including households, restaurants, supermarkets, food processing industries, farms, universities, and other similar facilities.