How to reduce consumer food waste at household level: A literature review on drivers and levers for behavioural change

Consumer food waste results from a complex set of different behaviours occurring at different stages of the household food management process. They are influenced by psychological, sociocultural, economic, and context-related factors that impact behaviour such as awareness, attitudes, cognitions, emotions, or external circumstances, here referred to as drivers. Instead, opportunities to systematically reduce food waste, here referred to as levers, also exist but they are not often acknowledged as the drivers. Identification of drivers and levers helps to design the accurate interventions to tackle consumer food waste. To provide a systematic overview of these food waste drivers and levers, this study builds upon: i) a bibliometric literature review conducted on a large dataset of scientific and grey literature published between 2010 and 2021, ii) a revised version of the Motivation Opportunity Ability (MOA) framework, and iii) an iterative feedback mechanism with experts of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum established by the European Commission in 2021. Drivers and levers of consumer food waste are identified, categorised, analysed, and discussed within the MOA framework. Thirteen drivers and their connected levers were identified in the literature in response to the MOA framework, while others fell in individual characteristics under demographics.

VITTUARI Matteo;  GARCIA HERRERO Laura;  MASOTTI Matteo;  IORI Elisa;  CALDEIRA Carla;  QIAN Zhuang;  BRUNS Hendrik;  VAN HERPEN Erica;  OBERSTEINER Gudrun;  KAPTAN Gubanu;  LIU Gang;  MIKKELSEN Bent Egberg;  SWANNELL Richard;  KASZA Gyula;  NOHLEN Hannah;  SALA Serenella; 

2023-05-25

ELSEVIER

JRC131049

2352-5509 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550923000672,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC131049,   

10.1016/j.spc.2023.03.023 (online),