The aim of this research is to develop the understanding of food waste behavior by analyzing student’s intention to reduce household food waste. The determinants Attitude, Subjective Norm and Perceived Behavioral Control (scope of Theory of Planned Behavior), as well as the Anticipated Emotions were therefore investigated. Data from a sample of 209 students at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland (Sweden) were collected with a web-based survey and used to identify the relevant factors. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that Attitude and Perceived Behavioral Control has a significant positive relation to the students’ Intention to reduce food waste. Subjective Norm and Anticipated Emotions did not reach statistical significance and could therefore not be used to draw conclusions. As a limitation, it must be considered that the focus is purely on the intention and the actual behavior was not part of the research. In addition, a missing universal definition of food waste leaves space for interpretation. What food (parts) is seen as edible depends on individual perception. People have different perceptions of what is edible. The findings of the research are helpful to recommend strategies on how to increase the intention to waste less food. Therefore it contributes to address the global issue of food waste. It outlines the factors that appear to drive the largest change in altering the intention to reduce food wastage.

Thesis (Master of Engineering in Chemical Engineering)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Approximately 9 million tonnes of food waste is generated annually in South Africa. Its treatment, including treatment of confectionery waste, is costly because of the high chemical oxygen demand (COD) loads; as a result much of this waste is sent to landfill. South Africa’s confectionery industry contributes to a significant proportion of the country’s economy. Among the confectionery waste entering landfills are defective material, expired sweets and returns. This high COD waste can create breeding grounds for pathogenic microorganisms and anaerobic methanogens, causing negative environmental impacts. Part of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Waste Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) roadmap initiative is to minimise waste entering landfills by identifying waste sources from which to produce value that will contribute to social and economic growth. Confectionery waste has a high sugar content which can be used for feedstock to bioprocesses. By placing this bioproduction into a waste biorefinery framework, bio-based raw materials can be used to produce competitively priced products with low environmental impact, thereby optimising remediation and value generation simultaneously. Ongoing research at the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research (CeBER) at the University of Cape Town has shown that a wastewater biorefinery approach can use wastewater as feedstock for the generation of products of value. Previous studies have investigated potential products of value based on nutrient loads found in wastewater as well as the nature of the product. Among the organisms selected was the Bacillus species, producing the potential product poly-γ-glutamic acid (PGA), an extracellular poly-amino acid when there is an excess of nutrients. Similarly, this product could potentially be produced from sugar-rich waste candy. The aim of this study was to explore the use of hard candy waste as a feedstock for PGA, and Bacillus licheniformis JCM 2505 was selected as it was characterised in terms of the nutrients needed. The most attractive attribute of this strain was that it did not need L-glutamic acid to synthesise PGA but could do so from sugar. L-glutamic acid is costly. Using a cheaper nitrogen alternative would make the process more cost effective. To investigate this potential, the confectionery waste was characterised to identify the nutrients, namely, sugars, organic nitrogen and key trace elements needed for cell function and PGA production. Results showed that the nitrogen content and trace element concentrations were insignificant, as it was determined that the waste consisted mostly of sucrose. This therefore had to be supplemented with a basal medium containing the supplementation needed for cell function and PGA production. The growth of B. licheniformis was profiled in Erlenmeyer shake flasks using candy waste supplemented with the basal medium, with sucrose supplemented with basal medium as a control. The results showed similar trends on candy waste and sucrose.

Au cours des dernières années, l'impact environnemental de la consommation alimentaire des consommateurs est devenu un des principaux objectifs de l'attention publique et politique. Les déchets alimentaires constituent l'une des plus grandes fractions du total des déchets ménagers. La quantité de nourriture gaspillée dans l 'Union Européenne (EU - 27 pays) était estimée à environ 89 millions de tonnes par an, dont la plus forte proportion est produite par les ménages, qui produisent également la plus grande proportion de déchets évitables (BIO Intelligence Service, 2010).Il est surprenant que peu de recherches associent la consommation alimentaire à la recherche sur les déchets alimentaires. Notre intérêt pour les déchets alimentaires provient de deux sources. Tout d'abord, il est important du point de vue de la durabilité. Le gaspillage alimentaire est un problème de consommation avec des impacts négatifs sur les ressources naturelles. Deuxièmement, d'un point de vue académique, nous sommes intrigués par le peu d'intérêt des recherches menées par les consommateurs sur les comportements liés aux déchets et en particulier sur les déchets alimentaires. Les contributions susmentionnées introduisent le gaspillage alimentaire comme un sujet de recherche pour le comportement des consommateurs et évoquent les principales facettes du problème, identifient les principaux antécédents au gaspillage alimentaire et suggèrent des théories du comportement des consommateurs qui aident à mieux comprendre les questions pertinentes. En outre, deux mesures politiques possibles sont testées et d'autres recommandations sont données.Dans cette thèse, nous commençons par dessiner une image plus large du gaspillage alimentaire. Ce chapitre se concentre principalement sur les déchets alimentaires en identifiant les théories du comportement des consommateurs qui sous-tendent le comportement des consommateurs en matière de déchets et présente un ordre du jour détaillé pour les futures recherches et les répercussions sur les politiques publiques.À partir du premier chapitre, le chapitre deux explore une possible implication des théories comportementales dans la politique publique afin de prévenir les déchets alimentaires. À l'aide d'études expérimentales, ce document s'appuie sur la littérature des normes sociales et présente des preuves d'un processus qui explique les effets négatifs possibles des campagnes de sensibilisation qui utilisent des normes descriptives négatives. Lorsque les campagnes de sensibilisation utilisent ce type de normes, les consommateurs les perçoivent comme des messages de blâme et utilisent l'information comme une excuse pour se comporter pire que ce qu'ils auraient réellement en l'absence du message. Ce processus est expliqué par la perception de la difficulté de la tâche. Le chapitre présente également des solutions pour bloquer ces effets négatifs et aider à la prévention des déchets.La prochaine activité dans la lutte contre les déchets alimentaires est de réduire la quantité de déchets. Il existe différentes méthodes possibles pour résoudre ce problème: la bonne gestion des aliments au niveau de l'agriculture et du commerce de détail, le recyclage, l'utilisation de restes au niveau des consommateurs, etc. Le chapitre trois a porté sur les campagnes existantes visant à réduire les déchets alimentaires des agriculteurs, , Produits mal formés. En utilisant la conception expérimentale, ce chapitre explore les attitudes des consommateurs envers les produits mal conçus. L'objectif de ce chapitre est de présenter des preuves que les consommateurs ont des attitudes positives vis-à-vis des produits mal formés, que des campagnes de «production laide» peuvent être mises en œuvre avec succès sans nuire à l'image des détaillants et ainsi réduire les déchets alimentaires. / In recent years the environmental impact of personal food consumption has become a main focus of public and political attention. Food waste is one of the largest fractions of the total household waste. The quantity of food wasted in the European Union (EU - 27 countries) was estimated to be around 89 million tons annually, out of which the highest proportion is produced by households, who also produce the highest proportion of avoidable waste (BIO Intelligence Service, 2010).Surprisingly there is little research associating research on food consumption with research on food waste. Our interest in food waste stems from two sources. First it is important from a sustainability perspective. Food waste is a consumption problem with clearly negative impacts on natural resources. Second, from an academic perspective, we are intrigued by the little focus of consumer research on waste behaviors and particularly on food waste. The above contributions introduce food waste as a research topic for consumer research and elicit the main facets of the problem, identify the main antecedents of food waste, and suggest consumer behavior theories that help better understand the relevant issues. Furthermore, two possible policy measures are tested and further recommendations are given.In this thesis we start by drawing a larger image of food waste. This chapter focuses mostly on food waste by identifying consumer behavior theories that underlie consumers’ waste behavior and presents a detailed agenda for future research and for public policy implications.Drawing from the first chapter, Chapter Two explores one possible public policy implication of behavioral theories in order to prevent food waste. Using experimental studies, this paper builds on social norms literature and presents evidence for a process that explains the possible negative effects of awareness campaigns that use negative descriptive norms. When awareness campaigns use these types of norms, consumers perceive them as blaming messages and use the information as an excuse to behave worse than they actually would have in the absence of the message. This process is explained through perceptions of task difficulty. The chapter also presents solutions for blocking these negative effects and helping the prevention of waste.The next activity in the endeavor of fighting against food waste is reducing the amount of waste. There are different possible methods that can address this issue: proper food management at agricultural and retailing level, recycling, using leftovers at consumers’ level etc. Chapter Three focused on existing campaigns designed to reduce farmers’ food waste, by inciting consumers to purchase imperfect, misshaped produce. Using experimental design, this chapter is exploring the attitudes consumers have towards misshaped produce. The aim of this chapter is to present evidence that consumers have positive attitudes towards misshaped produce, that “ugly produce” campaigns can be implemented successfully without damaging retailers’ image and thus that food waste can be reduced.

Anaerobic digestion is a key energy and resource recovery technology. This work investigated potential organic waste resources to co-digest with household food waste (HFW) to stabilise the process and future-proof feedstock availability. This included novel feedstock macroalgae (seaweed) waste (SW). Hydrothermal (autoclave) pretreatment was also investigated to optimise energy recovery from HFW and SW. Preliminary experiments investigated the behaviour of HFW co-digested with either a green waste (GW) or paper waste (PW), using a batch-test laboratory scale and systematic approach with a revised waste mixture preparation method. Following preliminary trials, the co-digestion of HFW/SW was investigated using an air-dried SW mixture. Batch experiments to determine the biomethane potential (BMP) at different ratios of HFW to SW were set up. Co-digesting HFW and SW at ratio 90:10 (d.w.) achieved a BMP similar to HFW alone (252±13 and 251±1 cm3 g-1 VS, respectively), and a peak methane yield for HFW:SW (90:10) at day 12 of 69±3% compared to a peak methane yield for HFW at day 19 of 70±3%. Addition of SW optimised the C/N ratio, increased concentrations of essential micronutrients and produced an overall increase in reaction kinetics. Concentrations of SW ≥25%, associated with high sulphur levels, reduced final methane productivity. Analysis of the macroalgae strains L. digitata, U. lactuca and F. serratus from the SW mixture was carried out to compare mono-digestion and co-digestion with HFW at a 90:10 ratio and the effect of autoclave pretreatment at 136°C. Co-digestion had a positive impact on methane yields for U. lactuca and F. serratus, whilst autoclave pretreatment had no significant impact on the SW strains When results were modelled for a 320 m3 anaerobic digester treating 8m3 feed per day the theoretical energy balance showed that optimal energy production from pretreated HFW at 8.09 GJ/day respectively could be achieved. To verify the suitability of using macroalgae, known to readily uptake polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), toxicity tests were used to determine the impact of phenanthrene sorbed by U. lactuca on the AD process. Despite U. lactuca’s ability to biosorb phenanthrene in under 2 hours, no impact on the AD process was observed. Overall, results of this study demonstrated that co-digestion of HFW and SW, at batch laboratory scale, provide a viable and sustainable waste revalorisation solution. In addition, low temperature autoclave pretreatment increased methane production (p=0.002) from the AD of HFW.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T22:10:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcos bandeira.pdf: 1119544 bytes, checksum: a7cf163b06722e404fefa66895aa07b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-28 / This paper explores the application of the Production Engineering usual tools - Kaizen, Analysis and QC Story, Ishikawa, Pareto, five whys - against food waste in an industrial kitchen, with the objective of developing a protocol for implementing these tools and so contribute with suggestions to actions that could be adopted in the different existing kitchens. To this end, it was adopted the kind of research and Case Study, with an experimental approach, where the main scope is the production chain of meals in aprofessional kitchen, from the receiving points till the production process and the production delivery, limiting themselves to the environment and process of cooking. The conduct of the study was based on the Technical Regulation of Practices for Food Services of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), since all internal actions must be conform to a Brazilian standard of food safety. The study environmentalist in a manufacturing company which supply collective meals and reach a volume with more than 4000 per day, and it is considered large and ideal for applying tools against waste scale. The research concluded that it is possible and advantageous to adopt Manufacturing Engineering Tools in the production process of industrial kitchens to reduce food waste. / Este trabalho explora o uso das ferramentas da Engenharia de Produção Kaizen, MASP, Ishikawa, Pareto, cinco porquês no combate aos desperdícios alimentares dentro de uma cozinha industrial, com o objetivo de elaborar um protocolo para aplicação destas ferramentas e assim contribuir com sugestão de ações que podem ser adotadas nas diferentes cozinhas existentes. Para tal, foi adotado o tipo de pesquisa Bibliográfica e Estudo de Caso, com uma abordagem quase-experimental, onde o escopo principal é a cadeia de produção de refeições em uma cozinha industrial, desde os pontos de recebimento do insumo para o processo produtivo à entrega do produto, limitando-se ao ambiente e processo da cozinha. A condução do trabalho foi baseada no Regulamento Técnico de Boas Práticas para Serviços de Alimentação da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA), visto que todas as ações internas precisam obedecer a um padrão de segurança alimentar. O estudo ambienta-se em uma empresa de manufatura onde o suprimento de refeições coletivas alcança um volume superior a 4.000 ao dia, sendo considerada de grande porte e ideal para aplicação de ferramentas contra o desperdício em escala. A pesquisa concluiu que é possível e vantajoso adotar as ferramentas da Engenharia de Produção no processo produtivo de cozinhas industriais para a redução de desperdícios de alimentos.

Approximately half of all wasted food is fruits and vegetables. One major cause of food waste is abnormal aesthetics; even if it is just as delicious as its normal counterpart. Food with a non-standard appearance (hereafter called ugly food) can be expelled by the markets. To reduce such waste, ugly food campaigns, which were developed in Europe and spread throughout the world, advocate for the consumption of ugly food. To study the problem of ugly food waste, this thesis examines ugly apples, since apples are the most common, representative, and readily accessible fruit. The objective of this thesis is to suggest marketing strategies and actions to facilitate the consumption and sales of ugly apples that can be expanded to other ugly fruits and vegetables. The data used for analysis are obtained from the Rural Development Administration in Korea. The findings of the thesis indicate that younger people and lower-income households are more likely to purchase ugly apples from online markets, non-stores such as food trucks and traditional markets compared with mega-scale discount stores. When advertising ugly apples, food quality should be emphasized rather than price.

Environmental problems such as pollution and overconsumption is something that is mentioned often in the news as this thesis is written. Food waste is a problem that causes valuable resources to be lost, as on average one third of all food globally is being wasted. The food chain is complicated, from the farm to the table, and innovations in all parts of the chain could help reduce the waste. We have aimed our scope to the end of the chain, when food is made at a restaurants to be served to customers. Figures say that about 23% of food in the restaurant business in Sweden is being wasted. To try to solve this problem, we have turned to service design and the methodologies presented there, to find a potential solution that could help reduce food waste. An extensive service design process was made with many interviews with restaurants to find where a solution could be made. The whole design process is presented in the report, and the final concept resolves around a sustainable lunch dish that can be made out of ingredients that would otherwise be thrown out. The dish would be sold at lunch restaurants for a reduced price since it is cheap to make, and would make more people act sustainable. A concept test was made to evaluate the the sustainable dish concept with the help from the public. The main question was: Is this concept something that could be adopted by people who buy lunch on a regular basis in Sweden? The concept test resulted in 165 respondents that were asked what they would choose to eat from a given menu. 32% chose the sustainable dish, and although biases were believed to have played a role in the decision, the concept was deemed successful. A website was then designed, aimed towards restaurants that wanted to adopt the concept and to get started in an easy way.

To significantly reduce the volumes of food currently wasted in industrialized countries, tackling food waste on the household level is paramount. While awareness campaigns and economic incentives are important measures, it is crucial to look beyond individual decision making and scrutinize how contextual factors frame consumer lifestyles in ways that intensify the issue of food going to waste. This paper addresses the role of material contexts-in particular, infrastructures and Technologies- in the shaping of food shopping and storing practices and thus consumer food waste. It presents an in-depth, qualitative study with 24 Austrian households, conducted from November 2016 to February 2017. Data were collected through food waste diaries, semi-structured interviews and a total of 16 focus group discussions. In line with other studies, we find that food waste is a largely unintended outcome of entangled daily routines revolving around food, such as meal planning, grocery shopping and food storing. The characteristics of food retail infrastructures-in terms of accessibility, density and type-shape these routines and thus potentially influence excess food purchases. Food storing practices as well depend on the characteristics of domestic infrastructures and co-evolve with technologies used for storing food. Unraveling the interconnectivity between material contexts and household food practices can inform policy, product design and food retail development and thus has implications for reducing consumer food waste.

Food waste is becoming an increasing threat to the environment and the economy. Estimates indicate that annually, a third of the food produced around the world ends up being wasted. Only one-fourth of that food is enough to take nearly a billion people out of starvation. Food waste is especially higher in more developed countries, including most of the states in the European Union and the USA. Sector-wise, food is being lost from field to fork, with households topping the charts. Overbuying, not knowing what already is in the fridge, unaware of the food until it eventually expires, are among the most common reasons that contribute to the food waste. The potential prevention of such massive waste could significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions around the world and help the economy of the households including all the parties involved in food production, distributing and retailing. On the other hand, technology has progressed in very rapid steps. The advancement of AI, ML, IoT, and voice-enabled devices has revolutionized many industries and has made us more efficient as human beings. Unfortunately, these advancements haven't yet had any significant impact in assisting families with their food choices and in preventing them from overbuying and throwing food away. Most of the proposed solutions addressing this issue, do not get integrated into everyday life. That is because they require a lot of manual input, rely entirely on mobile phones, do not show immediate results to keep users motivated, and on top of all, for the sole fact that modern lives are quite complex, and although an important issue, food waste is not an everyday cause of concern of an average person. This thesis takes into account all of the shortcomings of the previous works and aims to create a more sustainable solution by exploring new ways of food inventory management in the households by automating the process so that users don't have to manually enter the data themselves. The proposed solution consists of a device that should be easily mounted into any fridge and acts as an interface between users and their food inventory. The device contains a bar-code scanner for the item input and a back-end that is capable of recognizing the item and can in return show user-friendly and valuable information such as the approximate price of the item, the approximate due date etc. and notifies users when an item is about to expire so that they can take appropriate actions. 7 out of 9 participants in the final conceptual design study said they would use this solution in their homes. The rest of the results from the designed test cases indicate a clear excitement and interest in participants and a willingness to see the prototype in the finished state, all the comments and insights together with the future work and how the feedback will be used into the next iteration are part of the final discussion of this thesis.

Urban areas will play a decisive role in the sustainability of future societies. As such, there is a need to understand the processes through which cities can become more sustainable. Based on a qualitative case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this thesis explores the phenomenon of urban sustainability transitions in relation to learning. The thesis attempts to explain how learning at the level of socio-technical niches could be instrumental to broader systemic changes at the regime level. The theoretical framework for the thesis draws on the transactional perspective on learning developed from pragmatist educational philosophy, as well as practice theoretical approaches to studying sustainability transitions which have emerged in recent years. The empirical results gathered from the case are analysed using dramaturgical analysis and practical epistemology analysis. Based on these analyses, the thesis argues that the role and significance of learning in urban sustainability transitions can be understood in terms of educative practices, a concept which is elaborated in the discussion chapter. Thus, it is argued that learning through educative practices can contribute to urban sustainability transitions by challenging prevailing institutional norms and structures, and by establishing pathways through which unsustainable elements within the socio-technical regime can be reconfigured. / Wicked Problems and Urban Sustainability Transition