Influence of socio‐demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the amount of avoidable food waste generated in Finnish households

TLDR

The study investigates how socio‑demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal factors affect avoidable food waste in 380 Finnish households. Data were gathered through a 2‑week food‑waste diary and questionnaire, and analyzed with descriptive statistics. Only a few factors correlate strongly with waste amount, notably household size, gender of the main shopper, frequency of discounted purchases, and personal attitudes toward waste reduction and packet size; age, residence type, education, work, and typical shopping or cooking habits showed no clear correlation.

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the results of a questionnaire and food waste diary study on the influence of socio‐demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the amount of avoidable household food waste in 380 Finnish households. The research data were collected through a 2‐week food waste diary study accompanied by a background questionnaire. The influences of socio‐demographical, behavioural and attitudinal factors on the production of food waste were studied through application of descriptive statistics. It was established that only few factors clearly correlate with the amount of avoidable food waste. The factors that influenced the amount of food wasted were the size of the household, the gender of the person mainly responsible of grocery shopping, the frequency of buying discounted food products, the respondent's own view of the potential to reduce food waste and the respondent's own view of the influence of purchasing particular food packet sizes. The main factors with which no clear correlation was detected included age of the oldest person in household; area, form and type of residence; educational level and type of work of adults in the family; and shopping, food preparation and eating habits.