The determinants of consumer engagement in restaurant food waste mitigation in Poland: An exploratory study

Abstract

The growing magnitude of restaurant food waste undermines the environmental sustainability of the global sector of food service provision. The challenge of restaurant food waste is of particular concern for transitional and developing economies where food consumption out of home is becoming increasingly popular. In these markets, a large share of restaurant food waste comes from customer plates, which highlights changes to consumer behaviour as an important mitigation opportunity. Little is however known about how these behavioural changes can be activated and subsequently reinforced. This study explores the prerequisites of consumer involvement in mitigating restaurant food waste in Poland, a transitional economy in East-Central Europe. It tests the role of such prerequisites of pro-environmental consumer behaviour as public environmental knowledge, environmental concern, anticipated regret and pro-environmental behaviour at home in shaping positive customer attitudes towards the need to mitigate restaurant food waste with a subsequent trigger of behavioural intentions to engage in mitigation. The study offers policy and management recommendations on how these behavioural intentions can be reinforced.

Understanding the Effect of Dining and Motivational Factors on Out-Of-Home Consumer Food Waste

“…Filimonau et al (2019) note that without consumer awareness of both environmental and social impacts of food waste, it is difficult to promote food waste reduction. Conveying information about these impacts is important in raising consumers' awareness and motivation to reduce food waste [34]. Laven (2017) found that awareness of the impact of food waste on the environment supported positive behaviour change and hypothesised that restaurant managers are likely to see changes in food waste behaviour if they raise customer awareness of these impacts [30].…”

“…Therefore, it is recommended that future food waste reduction initiatives tap into consumers' financial, social and environmental values. Awareness of food waste as an issue is an important precursor to motivating out-of-home food waste reduction [5,27,30,34,35]. Positively positioned messages are more likely to generate positive consumer responses and translate into behaviours to reduce food waste [27].…”

“…Lorenz et al (2017) [38] found the situational factors of taste perception and portion size to be correlated with plate waste and recommend investigation of the effect of additional situational factors. It has also been hypothesised that that there may be specific motivational factors that encourage the reduction of food waste [25,34]. The present study sought to understand the effect of situational dining and motivational factors on out-of-home plate waste in cafés and restaurants through analysis of the nationwide survey, as these factors are important precursors to designing targeted interventions [16,25,30,34].…”

“…As consumer behaviour is a key driver of food waste in restaurants [32], it makes sense to engage consumers in the solutions for mitigating food waste [33]. In order to do this effectively, it is important to understand consumer awareness of issues associated with food waste as well as their underlying attitudes in order to effectively motivate behaviour change [34].…”

“…It has also been hypothesised that that there may be specific motivational factors that encourage the reduction of food waste [25,34]. The present study sought to understand the effect of situational dining and motivational factors on out-of-home plate waste in cafés and restaurants through analysis of the nationwide survey, as these factors are important precursors to designing targeted interventions [16,25,30,34]. Findings from this study will support restaurant and café managers in communicating with consumers on issues they are engaged with to lead to more effective behaviour change in terms of plate waste reduction.…”