A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level (2020) / Chapter Skim
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5 Strategy for Reducing Food Waste at the Consumer Level
5 Strategy for Reducing Food Waste at the Consumer Level
Pages 127-154
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From page 127... ...
Based on this broad exploration, the committee in this chapter proposes a strategy for reducing food waste at the consumer level. We do not propose a measurable target for this reduction, but support the overall goal of reducing food loss and waste in the United States by 50 percent by 2030, which is consistent with Target 12.3 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.1 The committee's proposed strategy targets opportunities to help save valuable food and reduce the profound negative environmental impacts of food waste.
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From page 128... ...
This framework provided a basis for considering how the research on drivers of consumer behavior and on interventions designed to modify that behavior can best be exploited to reduce food waste at the consumer level. The MOA framework helped us understand the multiple drivers identified by research and how they interact to result in food waste.
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From page 129... ...
that offer promising targets for interventions to reduce food waste: A. consumers' knowledge, skills, and tools; B. consumers' capacity to assess risks associated with food waste; C. consumers' goals with respect to food and nutrition; D. consumers' recognition and monitoring of their food waste; E. consumers' psychological distance from food production and disposal; F. heterogeneity of consumers' food preferences and diets; G. the convenience or inconvenience of reducing food waste as part of daily activities; H. marketing practices and tactics that shape consumers' food behaviors; I. psychosocial and identity-related norms related to food consump tion and waste; J. factors in the built environment (including in household and retail environments) and the food supply chain; and K. policies and regulations at all levels of government.
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From page 130... ...
. Taken together, the research on drivers and interventions from both the food waste context and the six related domains highlights the following general points that will be important guides for future efforts to design interventions for reducing food waste at the consumer level.
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From page 131... ...
A STRATEGY FOR REDUCING FOOD WASTE A broad range of organizations and stakeholders, including farms, nonprofits, innovators (e.g., startups, app developers, incubator hubs) , K–12 schools and postsecondary institutions, state and local government entities, and food industry associations and companies, are contributing to efforts to reduce food waste.
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From page 132... ...
changing the U.S. food environment to discourage waste by consumers; BOX 5-1 Priorities for the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative • Enhance interagency coordination • Increase consumer education and outreach efforts • Improve coordination and guidance on food loss and waste measurement • Clarify and communicate information on food safety, food date labels, and food donations • Collaborate with private industry to reduce food loss and waste across the supply chain • Encourage food waste reduction by federal agencies in their respective facilities SOURCE: https://www.usda.gov/foodlossandwaste/winning.
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From page 133... ...
ReFED estimates that approximately 11 million tons of food are wasted annually at the pre- and postconsumer levels in U.S. restaurants, and another 5 million tons in other food service settings,3 the majority occurring postconsumer (ReFED, 2018)
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From page 134... ...
More research is needed to investigate effective interventions at the food industry level and the potential for maintaining profits while increasing food waste reduction efforts and improving consumer loyalty. Food industry trade associations and nonprofit organizations are uniquely positioned to address the needs of the industry and to ensure that industry leaders are informed both of best practices for reducing food waste and of the business and social benefits of implementing those practices not only in their operations but also at the consumer level.
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From page 135... ...
Examples of the actions that manufacturers, retailers, and marketers can take to pursue these goals are shown in Box 5-2. Include food waste reduction in industry certification.
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From page 136... ...
• In institutional food settings where consumers typically have few food options and food is often discarded, such as hospitals and schools, offer as much choice as possible to reduce discards due to foods being unwanted. • Redesign all-you-can-eat buffets to include messages that encourage cus tomers to take only food they will definitely eat, or to sample and return to the buffet if they desire more food.
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From page 137... ...
Green Building Council, and other organizations in charge of developing environmen tal standards for businesses should include practices that reduce food waste at the consumer level as criteria in those standards, and encour age food businesses to modify their practices to meet those criteria. Develop and harmonize sensible date labeling.
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From page 138... ...
of discarded items, which suggests the potential impact of this approach on reducing food waste at the household level. About one-fourth of communities in the United States had implemented 6 Unit-based pricing, also known as pay-as-you-throw or variable-rate pricing, is a system of waste management whereby residents pay for the removal of municipal solid waste per unit of waste collected rather than through a fixed fee or property taxes.
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From page 139... ...
conducting a national behavior change campaign; (2) taking advantage of the influence of popular food experts (e.g., chefs on cooking shows, food blogs)
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From page 140... ...
Conduct a national behavior change campaign. An important element of a national behavior change campaign would be to increase consumers' motivation to reduce food waste by providing relevant information about the importance of the problem, appeals that align with their intrinsic motivations to reduce waste, information about the financial benefits to them of reducing waste, and ways to enhance their skills at reducing their own waste at and away from home.
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From page 141... ...
To develop sustained behaviors, mechanisms targeting opportunity and ability would ideally also provide feedback and rewards related to the desired behavior changes. While the federal agencies involved in the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative are in the best position to coordinate a far-reaching campaign that takes advantage of these insights about behavior change, such a campaign will be most effective if it is a collective effort involving state and local governments as well as nongovernmental entities and settings (e.g., schools or workplaces)
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From page 142... ...
Food and Drug Ad ministration should lead the development of a centralized platform for a behavior change campaign. This campaign should be designed both to inform the public about the environmental, economic, and social benefits of reducing food waste and tools and strategies for reducing their own waste, and to address nonconscious drivers of food waste, as well as consumers' ability and opportunity to change wasteful behav ior.
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From page 143... ...
and community organizations should work with their memberships and with influencers, such as dietitians, state extension specialists, recipe providers, cooking show hosts, chefs, and social media personalities, to promote the use of their platforms to advance consistent food literacy information, provide evidence-based guidance about optimizing the consumption of food and minimizing waste, and help shift social norms by providing information about the positive ef fects of supporting consumers in reducing waste. To leverage this source of influence, experts and influencing organizations, including foundations, chefs, dietitians, professional organizations, and environmental nonprofits, could collaborate in updating the information they offer to consumers with evidence-based guidance on food waste and relevant information related to food literacy, food safety, and nutrition; promoting consistency in messaging; and targeting messages appropriately for the populations they reach.
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From page 144... ...
. K–12 and postsecondary institutions can make a lasting contribution and can influence students' food literacy and motivation to reduce food waste by • including programming related to the effects, prevention, and man agement of food waste, as well as how to prevent it, in the cur ricula for math, science, social studies, language, arts, family/food/ consumer sciences, financial literacy, economics, vocational classes, and others; • altering their own practices to prevent food waste in their opera tions and assist their students and staff in preventing food from being discarded; • providing other educational resources, including relevant spaces such as teaching kitchens, food gardens, campus orchards, and campus farmers' markets, for experiential learning related to sound food practices and for meetings with food producers; and • providing incentives (e.g., credits, certificates, awards, intern ships)
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From page 145... ...
. Others are providing guidance for school administrators and teachers on strategies for reducing food waste by both the institutions and by the students (e.g., NRDC,11 USDA's Food and Nutrition Service12)
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From page 146... ...
Food and food storage manufacturers, food retailers, food service providers, and innovators can contribute significantly to reductions in food waste by continuing to improve existing technologies and creating new ones to help consumers with reducing food waste. At the same time, there are many unknowns regarding the effects of deploying 13 See Chapter 2 for a discussion of the possibilities that online shopping offers for reducing food waste.
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From page 147... ...
RECOMMENDATION 10: Government agencies at all levels and rel evant foundations concerned with the problem of food waste should support the proposed food waste reduction strategy by investing in • research to develop methods for measuring food waste at the con sumer level, including the collection of data on food waste, both aggregated and by type of food and reasons for wasting food in the United States, as part of an overall effort to measure food waste at the national level; • research and pilot studies that are adequately designed to evaluate interventions for reducing consumer-level food waste and both the intended and unintended outcomes of those interventions and are integrated with implementation plans; • training in intervention evaluation and implementation planning for appropriate staff of community-based organizations and gradu ate students through, for example, an evaluation institute; and • dissemination of information about the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions, including detailed descriptions of the intervention design and implementation. Coordination and Partnership The overarching goal of the committee's proposed strategy is to create and sustain a broad societal commitment to reducing food waste.
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From page 148... ...
Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should expand the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative by coordinating with key stakeholders at multiple levels and across societal sectors, including state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, foundations, industry leaders, food producers, and oth ers, in efforts to reduce food waste at the consumer level.
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From page 149... ...
STRATEGY FOR REDUCING FOOD WASTE 149 TABLE 5-1 Potential Contributions of Partners in the Committee's Strategy Partner Example Contributions Federal agencies • Coordinate efforts encompassed by the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative • Provide resources for collaboration and coordination with a broad group of stakeholders (e.g., state and local governments, corporations, academic institutions, foundations) • Develop evaluation and implementation guidelines • Coordinate and fund a national behavior change campaign, and provide relevant stakeholders and the public with tools and strategies for reducing food waste • Provide research, adaptable tools, and information to state and local entities • Coordinate and provide support for research and for a clearinghouse for sharing information and resources • Where federal agencies have jurisdiction over institutional procurement, support initiatives aimed at reducing consumer food waste State and local • Coordinate efforts with respect to food waste among agencies governments • Provide funding to support food waste reduction efforts • Adapt and disseminate the national behavior change campaign • Provide the public, businesses, and institutions with resources and easy everyday tips for reducing food waste • Encourage and support changes to the built environment and to food marketing that help reduce food waste • Establish and evaluate policies that encourage reduction of food waste behaviors, such as pay-as-you-throw disposal fees, and integrate them with other relevant policies • Coordinate efforts to provide schools, universities, and other educational institutions with appropriate tools and to promote the inclusion of food literacy and associated practical opportunities in curricula • Where state governments have jurisdiction over schools or institutional procurement, support initiatives aimed at reducing consumer food waste continued
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From page 150... ...
of foods rather than large quantities • Work with researchers to evaluate impacts and potential unintended consequences of interventions to reduce consumer food waste Food producers and • Inform consumers about the impacts of food waste, and provide the agriculture sector tips to help them reduce such waste • Reach out to consumers with the goal of reducing their physical and psychological distance from food and food production Restaurants and • Use evidence-based guidance to design, implement, and tailor other food service interventions to reduce consumer food waste -- for example, providers (e.g., optimize portions and number of options offered; redesign cafeterias at menus and food presentation, such as buffets; stop using trays; workplaces) encourage taking a sample helping and returning for more if desired; provide containers for leftovers; and provide tips for consumers on how to reduce food waste • Work with researchers to evaluate impacts and potential unintended consequences of interventions to reduce consumer food waste Food industry • Engage with the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative organizations (e.g., to coordinate efforts and use consistent methods, approaches, National Restaurant and terminology, and support evidence-based best practices Association, FMI- for reducing food waste at the consumer level by providing The Food Industry regularly updated written guidance, consultation services, and Association, Food tools to the relevant industries Waste Reduction • Encourage businesses to evaluate their efforts and provide tools, Alliance, Consumers funds, and connections to researchers for this purpose Brand Association)
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From page 151... ...
with reducing food waste Foundations • Invest in research to advance measurement of food waste at the consumer level and study of the drivers of food waste behavior and mechanisms for changing that behavior • Support food waste reduction programs/resources • Require and provide resources for evaluations in funded projects, and ensure that funded interventions are building on best practices and evidence rather than reinventing approaches Researchers and • Produce research to support future innovations and build the academic institutions knowledge base on drivers of consumer behavior and on best practices for interventions to change that behavior
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From page 152... ...
The government partners and others who contribute funding for elements of the committee's proposed strategy can ensure that systematic evaluation is built into the effort. RECOMMENDATION 12: Government agencies and others who fund interventions pursued as part of the proposed strategy to reduce food waste at the consumer level, as well as developers of state and local policies and regulations, should require that the effects of an inter vention, policy, or regulation on reducing food waste and increasing consumer capacity to reduce food waste, as well as on other elements of the food system and issues beyond food waste, be evaluated.
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From page 153... ...
2017. The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste.
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