The success of a food waste collection programme depends on the participation of citizens in the correct separation and collection of food waste. Municipalities have an important role in increasing the management of resources in the food chain and from the 1st of January 2021 it is mandatory for the municipalities in Sweden to provide a system for collecting food waste from households. In Kiruna, Sweden’s most northern municipality, the expansion of food waste collection is underway. To find out what attitude and behaviour citizens have around food waste collection; a survey was sent out to 300 households in the central part of Kiruna. This report investigates the role of information, attitudes, and incentives, on household’s participation in the food waste collection programme. A statistical analysis was made to find out if there was any difference in how well the food waste is sorted depending on whether the households have their own container or common container for food waste. The results show that the majority always sorts their food waste and that the respondents generally have a positive attitude. The respondents feel that the information has been enough for them to have the knowledge to sort properly. Environmental reasons, knowledge, storage space,” because you should” and information were the most important incentives for respondents to sort their food waste. Several comments revealed an uncertainty about the environmental benefits of the collected food waste. There is potential to improve information and increase knowledge to reduce uncertainty and increase motivations and positive attitudes.

Background. The production of food requires great amounts of natural resources. Although, not all the food produced is consumed. Food waste is a global issue with the potential to create resource scarcity for future generations. Preventing food waste is an effective approach to avoid this outcome. Moreover, the prevention of food waste could decrease the environmental human print and balance the access to food around the world. In developed countries, the households contribute in a significant amount to the food waste problem.. It is mainly attributed to the behaviours that the consumers develop consciously and unconsciously. Therefore, it is significant to research further in the implications of awareness in the behaviours linked to food waste. Aspiration. The following research aims to find the effect of awareness in the consumer behaviours linked to food waste in the household through an experiment.    Method. A survey with 52 respondents was used to sample the participants of the experiment. From the respondents, 12 young adults aged between 18 to 29 years old, living by themselves in Visby, Sweden participated in the experimental study. The participants of the experiment were divided in two groups, the experimental and the control group. A treatment, consisting of an educational video regarding prevention of household food waste, was provided to the experimental group. The experiment measures how the participants were affected by the treatment.  Key findings. Regarding the awareness of household food waste, the experimental group had a significant improvement compared to the control group after the treatment. This proves that the consumers whose awareness of household food waste is increased present a higher potential to have their behaviours changed thus reducing household food waste. The hypothesis was proven, while the main finding indicates that as consumer advanced in the experiment the reported behaviours change considerably. While it was expected that the self-reporting of household food waste in the participants would be reduced, in fact, this incremented in some cases.

Increasing amounts of food waste is becoming a problem in developed countries. This research project is about how to reduce food waste by tracking fridge inventory and the best-before date of fridge stored food by a smartphone application. Food waste occurs in several different ways. It can be found in the household, retail stores and in the catering and events sector. Food waste can also be classified as avoidable waste, possibly avoidable waste and unavoidable waste. This project focuses on the household sector and the use of a mobile application to track fridge inventory and best-before date. The purpose of the application is to try to reduce household food waste. There is previous research about reducing household food waste using mobile applications and they all take different approaches. This study focuses on building upon these previous approaches together with data gathered from our own questionnaire with Sweden as primary focus. The combined data results in our own mobile application solution that has been tested by users in Swedish households. The study’s research question is addressed by the use of the application during a period of one-week observation. Our data collection consists of the participants being interviewed at the end of the observation period. The interviews gathered information related to whether the users successfully reduced food wastage in their households.

Food waste is a global concern with significant environmental, economic, and social implications. Despite efforts to address the issue, household-level food waste remains substantial, contributing to food insecurity and environmental degradation. This study aims to explore factors triggering food waste behavior within households and examines how grocery retailers can nudge consumers toward environmentally sustainable food waste practices. A qualitative research design was used, involving semi-structured interviews with 20 participants in Sweden responsible for food management. Thematic analysis of interview recordings revealed key findings. Participants' food waste awareness centered on economic concerns, with limited consideration for environmental and social impacts. Planning emerged as a crucial aspect of food waste reduction, highlighting the need for tools like shopping lists. Additionally, conscious shopping habits were associated with reduced food waste, regardless of frequency or bulk purchasing tendencies. The practical implications for retailers include raising awareness through educational campaigns, integrating waste reduction messages into marketing materials, and providing inventory management tools and personalized shopping lists. Retailers can further support sustainable food waste behavior by offering recipe suggestions and workshops on food disposal or repurposing. Implementing these strategies can contribute to more sustainable food waste practices.

The objective of this thesis is to advance our understanding of how consumers use date labels and the implications of date-label use for household dairy product waste. It does this by investigating the effect of psychological, social, and contextual factors on date-label use and willingness to consume dairy products in relation to the expiry date. These effects are tested using structural equation models and survey data gathered from 548 Scottish consumers. The results of this study make two contributions to the literature on date-labelling and food waste. The first contribution is primarily theoretical. By improving our understanding of how consumers use date labels and the implications of date-label use for household dairy product waste, it supports the contention that food waste is best understood, not as a behaviour, but as the outcome of multiple behaviours. It argues that in order to understand why food waste is created, it is important to identify the factors that affect the individual behaviours that lead to it, such as date-label use, and how these behaviours relate to one another. These results also have implications for communications and campaigning around food waste reduction. The second contribution has policy relevance. It provides evidence of the likely limited effect of increasing the number of dairy products labelled with a best-before date rather than a use-by date on food waste. This is an approach recently proposed to reduce household food waste. It finds that better knowledge of the best-before date is associated with a higher willingness to consume products after the best-before date has passed. However, perceived risks about consuming products beyond their best-before date, including not just safety but quality, freshness, and social acceptability, appear to interact with date-label knowledge and dampen its influence. It argues that to be effective, any changes in date-labelling should be accompanied by communication that goes beyond improving date-label knowledge, and addresses the multifaceted nature of related risk perceptions and conceptions of date-label trust.

Submitted by Gustavo Araujo (soupotiguar@gmail.com) on 2016-01-05T09:24:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Porpino, Gustavo (2015) - Thesis - Household food waste.pdf: 2895370 bytes, checksum: 93f116081415629411bb3566fe066046 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2016-01-05T09:33:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Porpino, Gustavo (2015) - Thesis - Household food waste.pdf: 2895370 bytes, checksum: 93f116081415629411bb3566fe066046 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-05T10:34:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Porpino, Gustavo (2015) - Thesis - Household food waste.pdf: 2895370 bytes, checksum: 93f116081415629411bb3566fe066046 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-15 / This dissertation, based on empirical data collected with 50 nutritional gatekeepers distributed in Brazil (n=30) and the US (n=20), aims to provide an improved understanding of household food waste in the lower-middle income context. The thesis is comprised in three essays, which combined, fulfill the objectives of identifying the core antecedents of food waste and delineating a typology of food wasters. Additionally, it presents a contextualization of food waste worldwide and a concluding chapter proposes an agenda for future research studies on consumer food waste. Food waste, as a research theme, provides the opportunity for scholarly work in marketing to meet the criteria of managerial, public policy, and societal relevance. In the first article, I describe the drivers of the so-called “food waste paradox”, the identification and analysis of food waste in families with income constraints while presenting the food consumption itinerary and the core antecedents of wasted food. This first essay, based on data collected in Brazilian families, illustrates also how cultural norms, such as over-preparing food to show hospitality or as a form not to be perceived as poor, can generate more food waste. In the second essay, a grounded theory oriented research highlights the role of affection and abundance on consumer food waste. This second study presents a framework with six dimensions of food waste - 1. Affection; 2. Abundance; 3. Multiplicity of choices; 4. Convenience; 5. Procrastination; 6. Unplanned routine - to enrich the theoretical contributions. Based on empirical data collected in American families, it provides novel explanations, such as on how stockpiling comfort foods in abundance – a form of both boosting positive self-emotions and showing affection for kids – can promote more food waste. In sum, the second essay identifies a negative outcome of affection and food abundance in the family context, while providing a theoretically relevant general framework for the food waste phenomenon. Finally, the third essay, drawing from the entire dataset and a new data gathering from ten families, proposes a behavioral typology of household food waste, an original contribution to consumer behavior studies. The identification of five distinct food wasters’ types - (1) Caring mothers; (2) Heavy cooks; (3) Leftovers killers; (4) Procrastinators; (5) Resourceful mothers - contributes to theory, whilst a number of potential implications for nutritional educators and government officials are explored in light of the findings. A comparison of the Brazilian and American samples explains the characteristics of each type identified, showing many similarities in their respective food waste behaviors. Waste levels perceived per country are also compared. Overall, findings from the three studies, such as the itinerary presented and the identification of the major drivers of household food waste, can contribute to maximizing the results of campaigns aimed at mitigating food waste, and they provide insights for retailers interested in sustainability initiatives. Broadly-based, results presented can also be applied to improve hunger relief programs and nutritional education projects undertaken by the public sector or NGOs. / Esta dissertação doutoral, com base em dados empíricos coletados com 50 mães distribuídas no Brasil (n = 30) e nos EUA (n = 20), tem como objetivo fornecer uma melhor compreensão do desperdício de alimento no contexto da baixa renda. A tese é composta por três artigos, que combinados, cumprem os objetivos de identificar os antecedentes do desperdício de alimento e delinear uma tipologia dos desperdiçadores de alimento. Adicionalmente, contextualiza o desperdício global e um capítulo propõe uma agenda futura para estudos sobre desperdício de alimento no âmbito do consumidor. O desperdício de alimento nas famílias, enquanto tema de pesquisa, oferece a oportunidade para o trabalho acadêmico em marketing cumprir os critérios de relevância social, gerencial e para políticas públicas. No primeiro estudo, descrevem-se os fatores do chamado 'paradoxo do desperdício de alimento', a identificação e análise do desperdício de alimento em famílias com restrições orçamentárias, enquanto apresentam-se o itinerário do consumo de alimentos e os antecedentes do desperdício. Este primeiro artigo, elaborado com dados coletados em famílias brasileiras, ilustra também o papel das normas culturais, tais como o preparo abundante de alimento para mostrar hospitalidade ou como forma de não ser percebido como pobre, no aumento do desperdício. No segundo artigo, uma grounded-theory (teoria fundamentada nos dados) destaca o papel do afeto e da abundância no desperdício de alimento familiar. Para enriquecer as contribuições teóricas, este segundo estudo apresenta um framework com seis dimensões do desperdício de alimento (1. Afeto; 2. Abundância; 3. Multiplicidade de escolhas; 4. Conveniência; 5. Procrastinação; 6. Rotina sem planejamento). Baseado em dados empíricos coletados em famílias americanas, este estudo proporciona novas explicações, a exemplo de como o estoque abundante de comfort foods - uma forma de impulsionar tanto emoções positivas para si quanto mostrar afeto para crianças – pode gerar mais desperdício de alimentos. Em síntese, o segundo artigo identifica uma consequência negativa do afeto e da abundância de alimentos no contexto familiar, e apresenta um framework teoricamente relevante. Finalmente, o terceiro artigo, a partir do conjunto de dados dos estudos anteriores e de nova coleta com dez famílias, propõe uma tipologia comportamental do desperdício de alimento, uma contribuição original aos estudos de comportamento do consumidor. A identificação de cinco tipos de desperdiçadores de alimentos - (1) Mães carinhosas; (2) Cozinheiras abundantes; (3) Desperdiçadoras de sobras; (4) Procrastinadoras; (5) Mães versáteis - contribui para a teoria, enquanto implicações potenciais para educadores nutricionais e agentes públicos são exploradas a partir dos resultados. Como uma forma de explicar as características de cada um dos cinco tipos identificados, compara-se aspectos das amostras brasileira e norte-americana, que apresentam similaridades no comportamento de desperdício de alimento. Os níveis de desperdício percebidos por país também são comparados. Em suma, os achados dos três artigos podem contribuir para maximizar os resultados de campanhas de conscientização voltadas à mitigação do desperdício de alimento, e apresentam ideias para varejistas interessados em iniciativas de sustentabilidade. Mais abrangentemente, os resultados apresentados também podem ser aplicados para incrementar programas de combate à fome e projetos de educação nutricional realizados pelo setor público ou ONGs.

Household food waste levels pose a considerable problem in terms of sustainability. Food stock management applications for smartphones are interventions that support people in planning and keeping an overview of their food stock in order to reduce food waste. So far mainly their usability and effectiveness for reduction of food waste have been researched in HCI. This study aimed at investigating how these applications are being integrated into people’s food practices, and how their features contributed to the integration. In a three-week long field study seven participants used one of two applications in their daily lives. Through interviews and diary entries it was observed that some people integrated the applications into their food practices to replace other actions like checking one’s food stock. New connections to the food practices were created through expiration reminders and providing means to check the food stock from a distance. Reminders were seen as helpful even if not always necessary and can be seen as an opportunity to further support the integration process. The main issues for the integration were the high-effort adding processes and remembering to update the inventory after consumption.