Food waste within eco-friendly households: modelling the factors that have an impact on food waste levels

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the key factors that explain variances in levels of food waste in eco-friendly households. Despite the growing literature on food waste, there is a substantial lack of knowledge on the determinants of food waste in eco-friendly households. Methodology: The findings are based on a quantitative survey of 334 respondents. Frequency distribution and the ordered probit modelling and marginal effect analysis are used to analyse the survey data. Findings: Most of the eco-friendly households report food wasting from 0% (no food wasted at all) to 20%. In this survey, affluent young males, who have young children and who frequently eat outside of the home, are found to be more likely to waste food than others. Furthermore, older females who are anxious about the cost of food waste, people who can distinguish between 'use by' and 'best before' dates, and who make an effort to reduce food waste, are found to be less likely to waste food. Marginal effects are presented since they show the impact of a change in an explanatory variable on the predicted probabilities of wasting food. At high levels of food waste, knowledge of expiry dates appears to be the only discriminatory variable, and at negligible or low levels of food waste, the presence of young children in the household seems to be a crucial predictor for food waste. Policy implications: Research on factors that explain variances in levels of food waste is crucial if modern society is to make a transition to more sustainable lifestyles