Moving towards a food-waste free world: Combining different approaches to reduce food waste
(A2024-118299)

AUTHORS

Ilona de Hooge, Wageningen University

ABSTRACT

Humans’ use of natural resources exceeds the planet’s possibilities (Steffen et al., 2015). Consequently, it is essential that we reduce our resource usage. Agricultural production ranks amongst the largest demanders of natural resources, but one half of the world’s food production is wasted (FAO, 2013, 2019). Reducing food waste is thus one of the necessary world-wide actions for a more sustainable future (UN, 2022). Yet, reducing food waste is quite challenging. Food waste occurs at all supply chain levels and for all types of food. To develop solutions that motivate a transition towards a circular food system, it is thus essential to combine research on different actors and food solutions. We present such a multi-actor, multi-food issue approach, combining research on households, retailer-consumer interfaces, retailers, and growers and presenting solutions for different food waste issues. We first focus on all types of food waste occurring at households. Ribbers, Van Herpen, Geuens, and Pandelaere (Morals over money: The surprisingly powerful link between moral motivations and consumers’ food waste) explore the different consumer motivations using a waste audit with household waste collection. It appears that moral motivations are the primary driver of reduced household food waste for multiple food categories, but other motivations influence specific food categories. This highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of household food waste reduction. Mullick, Iman, Van Herpen, and Dibb (Impact of ‘Best-Before’ Date Label Removal on Purchase: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in UK) move to the retailer-consumer interface and examine the impact of removing 'best-before' date labels from fresh foods. Using a difference-in-differences approach and consumer panel data, they show the effects on purchase quantities, interpurchase times, and patronage for the focal supermarket. This reveals novel insights for sustainable retailing. De Hooge and Van Trijp (A multi-actor approach to imperfections - Marketing strategies to reduce suboptimal foods waste in supply chains) focus on motivating actors to reduce suboptimal food waste throughout the supply chain. An survey and experiment with producers and retailers reveals their motivations, abilities, and opportunities to sell suboptimal products, and their responses to different marketing strategies for suboptimal foods. This shows opportunities to reduce suboptimal food waste. Finally, Van Doorn, Luiting-Drijfhout, Van Ittersum, and Werkman (Reducing Food Waste Conveniently—The Case of Semi-prepared Food) examine the possibility of reducing retailer and consumer household food waste with semi-prepared food. Semi-prepared food can be a strategy for retailers to cater to both convenience and environmental issues. Three studies (two longitudinal field studies collecting actual food waste), show that such food decreases food waste by up to 65%. Semi-prepared food is thus a promising solution for retailers.