Sustainable Consumption of Food: Framing the Concept through Turkish Expert Opinions

Abstract

The scarcity of natural resources together with the exponentially increasing world population has made the sustainable consumption of food (SCF) a crucial issue, as it has impacts on a variety of environmental, health, economic, and social dimensions. Considering the rarity of a holistic view in previous studies, this study aims to assess the current situation in sustainable food consumption and develop suggestions from all aspects, depending on the opinions of experts. In this direction, semi-structured interviews are conducted with 25 experts from Turkey to frame the concept of SCF, reveal the level of consumers’ awareness, and provide suggestions to support SCF implications. Experts have considered SCF from ecologic, social, economic, and health perspectives; ecologic aspects being the most important, followed by economic and social perspectives. Deficits on the consumer side are lack of awareness, unplanned shopping, and mistakes in post-consumption behavior. Lack of awareness about the consequences of meat production, difficulties in changing lifestyles and lack of motivation of adults were identified barriers to SCF. Finally, suggestions of the experts for achieving sustainability are mostly relevant to raising awareness on balanced nutrition and food waste, with the help of training programs and the efficient use of communication channels, such as social media.

Sustainable food consumption and Sustainable Development Goal 12: Conceptual challenges for monitoring and implementation

“…Although a diet that is SFC‐sound can be environmentally friendly, this does not translate into a preferred diet that people accept to incorporate into their daily choices. Özkaya et al (2021) stated that environmental protection, consideration of the needs of future generations, and satisfaction of fundamental needs are relevant factors for SFC. The later‐presented definitions result from a literature review.…”

Applications of green technologies‐based approaches for food safety enhancement: A comprehensive review

“…The need for safe food manufacturing and processing methods has become much more critical as a result of population growth over the last several decades, as well as the demands arising from industrialization. Changes in the atmosphere and public health, on the other hand, have demonstrated the delicate balance between sustainable food manufacturing practices, a balanced environment, as well as a healthy society (Tekinbaş Özkaya et al., 2021 ). To sustain global socioeconomic sustainability, adequate supplies of safe, nutritional food would be needed.…”

Sustainable meat consumption intentions: conceptualisation, scale development and validation

“…The opening decades of this century have witnessed increasing research attention on sustainable meat consumption (Bangsa and Schlegelmilch, 2020;Tekinbas ¸€ Ozkaya et al, 2021). Nonetheless, scholars highlight the moralities and emotions surrounding meat consumption (i.e.…”

“…2. Literature review 2.1 Sustainable consumption intentions and gaps in existing measurement scales Sustainable meat consumption is classified into two behavioural strategies: the first encompasses the choice of products that are produced sustainably, such as organic, freerange meat (Schipmann-Schwarze and Hamm, 2020), and the second incorporates the adoption of sustainable dietary patterns such as meat curtailment (Tekinbas ¸€ Ozkaya et al, 2021). Hence, this study took these two core aspects of sustainable intentions into account when developing a new scale.…”

“…Most scales are developed in western contexts, where socio-cultural norms differ markedly from emerging markets (Cheah et al, 2020). It is important to develop an SMCI scale that measures the socio-cultural effects at an individual level (Tekinbas ¸€ Ozkaya et al, 2021;Marinova and Bogueva, 2019).…”