Assessment of household food waste in Hungary

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine and quantify the most dominant types of food waste in Hungarian households and to analyse the effect of demographic background and income as influencing factors. Design/methodology/approach Data related to solid and liquid food waste were recorded from 100 households for one week. The study primarily focussed on avoidable food waste, however, unavoidable and potentially avoidable food waste were also measured. Appropriate tools and manual were provided to the households to ensure data consistency. Findings Estimated quantity of total food waste (including liquid waste) per capita is 68.04 kg/year. In all, 48.70 per cent of total food waste would have been avoidable (equals to 33.14 kg/capita/year). Most frequently wasted food categories were meals and bakery products. In case of some demographic categories, different wastage levels were observed. It was also confirmed that income has effect on food waste production that varies by foodstuff categories: bakery product waste was mainly dominant for middle income consumers and fresh fruits were typically wasted by more affluent households. Apart from that, higher income resulted in higher food waste production in general. Practical implications This primary data set about avoidable food waste in Hungary contributes with relevant information to the refining of international estimates. Having specific data on food wastage and the most affected target groups, as well as information on the impact of the income can be applied in planning awareness raising campaigns. Originality/value The research is based on measurement of food waste categories in households resulting in detailed data sets. This study is one of the first investigations based on primary data collection from the eastern part of Central Europe and the very first related to Hungary. The study draws attention also to the influence that household income exerts on the issue of food waste.

Food waste volume and composition in households in Greece

“…A total of 101 households participated in the study. This sample size is comparable to other similar studies (Szabó-Bódi et al, 2018;Pariseau et al, 2015). The distribution of the family members within these households is presented in Table 1.…”

“…Compared to similar self-reporting studies, Szabó-Bódi et al (2018) report that the percentage of the avoidable food waste in Hungary was 48.7% (corresponding to 33.14 kg per capita per year) and that the most frequently wasted food categories were meals and bakery products. Delley and Brunner (2018) report that 44% of the avoidable food waste in Switzerland belongs to the aggregated category of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and herbs followed by bread and bakery products (17%).…”

“…Focusing on the developed countries, a closer look in the literature reveals that Szabó-Bódi et al (2018) report a value of 68.06 kg per capita (including liquid waste) generated annually by the households in Hungary. Deley and Brunner (2018), based on a self-reported survey showed 8.9 kg of avoidable and possibly avoidable household food waste per capita per year in Switzerland.…”

COVID-19 virus outbreak lockdown: What impacts on household food wastage?

“…In contrast, fish and seafood group, meat and meats products as well as pulses and oilseeds are the least wasted food, mostly estimated as less than 2% of purchased foods. Similar results on discarded food categories were found in Morocco (Abouabdillah et al 2015), Turkey (Yildirim et al 2016), Algeria (Arous et al 2017), as well as in Italy (Fanelli and Di Florio 2016) and Hungary (Szabó-Bódi et al 2018). According to Tunisian National Institute for Consumption (INC 2018), households waste about 16% for bread, 10% for cereal products (pasta and couscous) and 6% for vegetables.…”

“…In Near East and North Africa region, food waste has been estimated to 250 kg per year per individual and, at the consumption stage, to be 34% (FAO 2015). Several studies identified food categories that are most wasted in households, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, bread and other bakery goods, and leftovers (Fanelli and Di Florio 2016;Shanes et al 2018;Szabó-Bódi et al 2018). Others studies have focused on consumers' behavior, awareness and the causes of food waste in countries such as Australia (Pearson et al 2013), Morocco (Abouabdillah et al 2015), Egypt (Elmenofi et al 2015), Italy and Germany (Jörissen et al 2015), Turkey (Yildirim et al 2016), Algeria (Arous et al 2017), Greece (Ponis et al 2017), Montenegro (Berjan et al 2019) and Malaysia (Dalilawati et al 2019).…”