Why do we waste so much food? Understanding household food waste through a theoretical framework

Deliberador, Lucas Rodrigues; Batalha, Mário Otávio; César, Aldara da Silva; Azeem, Muhammad Masood; Lane, Jonathan; Carrijo, Pâmella Rodrigues Silva

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137974

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The European Commission has attempted to strengthen and improve the quantification of food waste by revising the waste framework directive and waste hierarchy, which places "prevention" at the top and advises to reduce food production and consumption to prevent food waste along the FSC (European Commission, 2013). Furthermore, the United Nations Environment Program attempted to standardize the requirements for a uniform measurement of HFW and provided suggestions and recommendations for novel HFW quantification methods (European Commission, 2013;European Commission, 2015;Deliberador et al, 2023). It is recognized that there are current general practices within households that result in wasting edible food that could be due to purchasing excesses, mismanagement of expired food products and spoilage, among other factors.…”

Section: Current Quantification Of Hfwmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges in the quantification of household food waste: the need for consistent methodologies

Wunderlich,

Feldman

2024

BFJ

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Purpose The purpose of this short communication is to shed light on the accuracy of quantification methods of household food waste (HFW).Design/methodology/approach Thirty-seven recently published studies in HFW were surveyed for this commentary. Exemplary methods and findings of these studies were compared.Findings It is challenging to draw conclusions on the amount of the HFW per person/town/country due to the inconsistent and heterogeneous methodologies used. We recommend using direct measurements or triangulation of methods to help ensure valid findings. Governments should incentivize consumers to deliver their food waste to designated locations where weights could accurately be assessed. Monetary or tax incentives could help stimulate an accurate accounting of waste and encourage reductions. Food waste measurements should be consistently reported as kg/person/week.Social implications Food and water security must be provided for all. It is estimated that one-third of edible food for humans is currently lost or wasted globally. According to the World Food Program (WFP), this is about 1.3 billion tons of food per year and at the same time this wasted food could be sufficient to feed two billion people.Originality/value The aim of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature about the magnitude and significance of HFW and its impact on the environment and social welfare. Currently, there are no generally accepted uniform methods of food waste quantification at the household level. This original communication brings the importance and challenges of the quantification of HFW to light.

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Section: Current Quantification Of Hfwmentioning

confidence: 99%