Working to Reduce Food Waste: Investigating Determinants of Food Waste amongst Taiwanese Workers in Factory Cafeteria Settings

Abstract

Food waste is a critical issue affecting the world, and more research is needed to find ways to reduce it. Much of the existing research has examined supply chain inefficiencies and plate waste in restaurants and homes, while few researchers have studied the food waste which occurs in factory cafeterias. As many factories are in Asia, examining factory cafeteria food waste behavior in an Asian context is a good starting point. With this in mind, the authors research drivers that influence Taiwanese factory workers’ behavioral intentions toward food waste reduction. To do so, a conceptual framework model is constructed using the Theory of Planned Behavior and extended using the Norm action model and Proenvironmental factors, as well as additional factors including habit, cafeteria-service quality and situational factors. A pencil-and-paper survey was conducted with 156 participants, and collected data were evaluated using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. Results reveal that climate change awareness, injunctive norms and habit are strong motivating factors towards Taiwanese factory workers’ intention to reduce food waste. When combined with cafeteria-service quality and situational factors, intention to reduce food waste is also shown to have a significant explanatory effect on food waste behavior.

Food Waste Perception of Workplace Canteen Users—A Case Study

“…Bell's study (2020) reported a relationship between food waste and level of education [20]; on the opposite, no significant relationship was found between food waste and education level and frequency of attendance to the canteen in the present study, probably due to the homogeneity of participants' graduation level.…”

“…Bell et al used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to analyze the influence of canteen workers' behavioral intentions toward food waste reduction. Loss of appetite, poor taste, low appeal, or lack of time to have meals presented a positive impact on food waste behavior [20]. The same TPB was used to analyze food waste behaviors in mass catering services and concluded that a greater intention not to leave edible food and a higher degree of perceived control over this behavior reduced the quantity of food waste [21].…”

“…Most food service waste studies have been developed on school canteens [27][28][29][30], social centers [31], and hospitals [32,33], and only a few studies have performed empirical research on food waste at workplace canteens [20,21,34,35]. In Portugal, the business structure of the accommodation, restaurant, and similar sectors (Canal HoReCa) corresponds to 7.8% of the total registered companies.…”

Pro-environmental habits: An underexplored research agenda in sustainability science

“…Some efforts have been made to expand attitude–behaviour models by including habits, often increasing the predictive power (e.g. Donald et al 2014 ; Chuang et al 2018 ; Bell and Ulhas 2020 ; Çoker and van der Linden 2020 ; Liu et al 2020 ; Aboelmaged 2021 ). Others call for more research on habits (Peattie 2010 ; Wynes et al 2018 ) or highlighting habits as a strong barrier/motivator for pro-environmental behaviours (e.g.…”

Consumers’ decision-making mechanism differs under the presence of risk, habits, and past behavior for organic fisheries foods

“…Extant studies have continued to endorse the essential role of habits on the behavior at play (Dang & Tran, 2020;Tuu, 2015). Some identified it as the most key predictor of behavior (Russell et al, 2017) and intention (Bell & Ulhas, 2020). Habit was confirmed to moderate the association between intention and behavior (de Bruijn et al, 2012;Gardner et al, 2012;Menozzi et al, 2021).…”