A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level (2020) / Chapter Skim
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2 Understanding Food Waste, Consumers, and the U.S. Food Environment
2 Understanding Food Waste, Consumers, and the U.S. Food Environment
Pages 37-62
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From page 37... ...
The committee notes that the COVID-19 pandemic, which developed as work on this report was being completed, has disrupted the food system and is affecting consumer behavior in numerous ways both large and small. As this report goes to press, the pandemic is still developing, and researchers have not yet had time to document all these changes and assess their impact, but doing so will undoubtedly be a vital contribution to the understanding of consumer food waste in the future.
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From page 38... ...
. These elements are key to strategies that can change behavior and reduce food waste at the consumer level.
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From page 39... ...
Finally, the fifth group is not very involved with food and has a low level of interest in cooking, food safety, or the price–quality relationship; this group reports the highest level of food waste. The complexity of these segments illustrates that reducing food waste involves more than simply raising consumer awareness.
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From page 40... ...
Thus they examine how and where consumers interact with food they obtain from food retailers, charities and other sources of free food, or online, or in food service venues. Food Retailers Supermarkets and supercenters Supermarkets and supercenters (hypermarkets)
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. Charities, including food banks, soup kitchens, and food pantries,2 are part of the emergency food sector, serving the food insecure (more than 37 million people in the United States)
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. Several features of online grocery shopping make these consumers a promising target for strategies to reduce food waste.
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. Educational institutions are particularly promising venues for reducing food waste, not only because they are places of learning where lifelong FIGURE 2-1 In 2010, expenditures on food away from home surpassed those on food at home.
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. The National School Lunch Program is usually administered by state education agencies, which operate the program through agreements with school food authorities.
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to help consumers with food planning during the acquisition, preparation, and storage and increase their awareness of their own food waste levels. As researchers continue to explore the efficacy of these technologies in reducing food waste, it will be important to consider other issues as well, such as consumer acceptability and access, safety, environmental impacts, and equity impacts.
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From page 46... ...
It also explains how some important knowledge gaps and misconceptions, particularly about food safety, are likely to relate to food waste at the consumer level. Sources of Food and Nutrition Information Food literacy varies greatly among consumers, partly because they acquire information about food through a variety of sources, settings, and personal experiences.
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From page 47... ...
. A few misperceptions -- or myths -- about food quality, food safety, composting, and food production practices in particular influence food waste behaviors.
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From page 48... ...
Food Safety and Quality Although the CDC, FDA, and USDA all provide clear information regarding food preparation and safety, handling foods in a safe manner can be counterintuitive and a challenge in practice. For example, an FDA FIGURE 2-2 Responses regarding eight possible reasons for discarding food.
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From page 49... ...
Environmental Sustainability The 2019 IFIC Food and Health Survey found that while environmental sustainability was the lowest-rated of the purchase drivers included in the survey, 6 in 10 consumers said it was difficult to determine whether the food choices they made were environmentally sustainable, and 63 percent of those respondents said environmental sustainability would have a greater influence on their choices if this information was clearer (IFIC Foundation, 2019b)
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, producers began to see more demand for product transparency and pressure to "decode" their date labels. Although the NLEA guidelines set clear requirements for nutrition labeling, consumer-facing date labeling was to be defined and implemented voluntarily by the food industry.
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Despite these advantages, composting is not the best ap proach to managing edible but uneaten food: the benefits of reducing food waste by acquiring only what will be consumed and consuming all the edible parts, which include saving resources and reducing the environmental impacts of food produc tion, far outweigh the benefits of composting. However, researchers have found that 41 percent of people feel less guilty about discarding food if they compost it rather than throw it away (Neff et al., 2015)
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From page 52... ...
Each of these groups has different goals, including increasing food production efficiencies, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, improving resource efficiencies, and ensuring food security in communities. Groups focused exclusively on the mission of reducing food waste have produced important reports to raise awareness and provide roadmaps and practical solutions (e.g., ReFED in the United States, the Waste and Resources Action Programme in the United Kingdom)
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From page 53... ...
In 2015, EPA and USDA called for a first national goal of a 50 percent reduction in food loss and waste by 2030, which stimulated great motivation to act among businesses and organizations. Of note is the creation of the Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions voluntary program, which features businesses and organizations that have committed to reducing food loss and waste in their own operations in the United States by 50 percent by 2030 (see examples of their work in Table C-3 in Appendix C)
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From page 54... ...
For example, advancing packaging and processing technologies to make food last longer has long been a priority in the manufacturing sector. Although originally designed to improve safety, convenience, and quality, these technologies are now at the core of reducing food waste throughout the food system, including at the consumer level.
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From page 55... ...
Moreover, leaders might not be aware of the important nonfinancial reasons for reducing food loss and waste, related to food security, environmental sustainability, stakeholder relationships, and a sense of ethical responsibility. There are opportunities for the food industry to promote consumer behaviors that result in reductions in food waste while maintaining economic sustainability.
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From page 56... ...
An example of a relevant initiative is guidance developed in the United Kingdom for retailers on how to develop food promotions that will not contribute to increased food waste.7 At the regional level, such initiatives as the West Coast Voluntary Agreement to Reduce Wasted Food,8 which recently called for the engagement of food retailers and their supply chain partners to reduce and prevent food waste by 50 percent by 2030, show promise. At the global level, the Consumers Goods Forum,9 a global association of 400 companies representing $2.7 trillion in combined annual sales, has committed to halving food waste by 2025.
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From page 57... ...
CONCLUSION 2-4: The food industry, including retailers, food service providers, and manufacturers, has a substantial influence on consum ers' decisions about food, which can be used to reduce food waste at the consumer level. Identifying business and marketing practices that can serve customers and generate profits while also discouraging food waste is a promising goal for food waste reduction efforts.
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2019. Winning on Reducing Food Waste.
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2017. The business case for reducing food loss and waste.
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2016. Direct farm sales of food: Results from the 2015 local food marketing practices survey.
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From page 61... ...
2014. Defining food literacy and its components.
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