Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors

PLOS ONE, Jun 2015

The U.S. wastes 31 to 40% of its post-harvest food supply, with a substantial portion of this waste occurring at the consumer level. Globally, interventions to address wasted food have proliferated, but efforts are in their infancy in the U.S. To inform these efforts and provide baseline data to track change, we performed a survey of U.S. consumer awareness, attitudes and behaviors related to wasted food. The survey was administered online to members of a nationally representative panel (N=1010), and post-survey weights were applied. The survey found widespread (self-reported) awareness of wasted food as an issue, efforts to reduce it, and knowledge about how to do so, plus moderately frequent performance of waste-reducing behaviors. Three-quarters of respondents said they discard less food than the average American. The leading motivations for waste reduction were saving money and setting an example for children, with environmental concerns ranked last. The most common reasons given for discarding food were concern about foodborne illness and a desire to eat only the freshest food. In some cases there were modest differences based on age, parental status, and income, but no differences were found by race, education, rural/urban residence or other demographic factors. Respondents recommended ways retailers and restaurants could help reduce waste. This is the first nationally representative consumer survey focused on wasted food in the U.S. It provides insight into U.S. consumers’ perceptions related to wasted food, and comparisons to existing literature. The findings suggest approaches including recognizing that many consumers perceive themselves as being already-knowledgeable and engaged, framing messages to focus on budgets, and modifying existing messages about food freshness and aesthetics. This research also suggests opportunities to shift retail and restaurant practice, and identifies critical research gaps.

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Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors

June Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors Roni A. Neff 0 1 2 Marie L. Spiker 0 1 2 Patricia L. Truant 0 1 2 0 1 Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland, United States of America, 2 Center for a Livable Future, The Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore , Maryland, United States of America, 3 Program in Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore , Maryland, United States of America, 4 Department of Health Policy and Management. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore, Maryland , United States of America 1 Funding: This research was funded by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) with a gift from the GRACE Communications Foundation ( 2 Academic Editor: Andrea S. Wiley, Indiana University , UNITED STATES The U.S. wastes 31 to 40% of its post-harvest food supply, with a substantial portion of this waste occurring at the consumer level. Globally, interventions to address wasted food have proliferated, but efforts are in their infancy in the U.S. To inform these efforts and provide baseline data to track change, we performed a survey of U.S. consumer awareness, attitudes and behaviors related to wasted food. The survey was administered online to members of a nationally representative panel (N=1010), and post-survey weights were applied. The survey found widespread (self-reported) awareness of wasted food as an issue, efforts to reduce it, and knowledge about how to do so, plus moderately frequent performance of waste-reducing behaviors. Three-quarters of respondents said they discard less food than the average American. The leading motivations for waste reduction were saving money and setting an example for children, with environmental concerns ranked last. The most common reasons given for discarding food were concern about foodborne illness and a desire to eat only the freshest food. In some cases there were modest differences based on age, parental status, and income, but no differences were found by race, education, rural/urban residence or other demographic factors. Respondents recommended ways retailers and restaurants could help reduce waste. This is the first nationally representative consumer survey focused on wasted food in the U.S. It provides insight into U.S. consumers' perceptions related to wasted food, and comparisons to existing literature. The findings suggest approaches including recognizing that many consumers perceive themselves as being already-knowledgeable and engaged, framing messages to focus on budgets, and modifying existing messages about food freshness and aesthetics. This research also suggests opportunities to shift retail and restaurant practice, and identifies critical research gaps. - Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. In the U.S., 31 to 40% of the U.S. post-harvest food supply goes to waste[1,2]. A substantial portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level, driven not only by consumer behaviors but also by practices at the processing, retail and restaurant levels and by broader social and economic factors[3,4]. This waste has immense consequences. The lost nutritional value of post-harvest waste in the U.S. represents an estimated 1,249 calories per capita per day, with the greatest amount by weight coming from fruits and vegetables [1]. Waste impacts public, food industry and household budgets; food lost from harvest to consumer in 2010 cost $161.6 billion; losses at the consumer level averaged $371 per capita, or 9.2% of average food spending [1]. Addressing wasted food puts that food and/or money back into circulation, potentially contributing to improved nutrition and, among those with lower incomes, improved food security. More broadly, reducing waste could help offset the 60% increase in food the United Nations projects we will need from 2009 to 2050[5]. Because wasting food means wasting all the food’s “embodied” social and environmental impacts, this loss contributes extensive water, air and soil contamination [6] and harm to workers[7]. Wasted food in North America/Oceania also accounts for an estimated 35% of freshwater consumption, 31% of cropland, and 30% of fertilizer usage[8]; as well as 2% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions [9]; and 21% of post-recycling municipal solid waste[10]. The avoidable use of limited resources and additional environmental impacts from wasted food contribute to the challenge of providing a sustainable and affordable food supply for the future. While well-supported efforts to understand and address wasted food have proliferated around the world[11–13], in the U.S. these efforts are nascent, piecemeal, and primarily entrepreneurial, though there are some federal and state interventions[14,15]. Intensive, multifaceted efforts supported by research can work; for example, follow (...truncated)


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Roni A. Neff, Marie L. Spiker, Patricia L. Truant. Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors, PLOS ONE, 2015, Volume 10, Issue 6, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127881