Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Tell me what you waste and I’ll tell you who you are. An eight-country comparison of consumers food waste related habits

Version 1 : Received: 27 October 2022 / Approved: 28 October 2022 / Online: 28 October 2022 (08:53:01 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Iori, E.; Masotti, M.; Falasconi, L.; Risso, E.; Segrè, A.; Vittuari, M. Tell Me What You Waste and I’ll Tell You Who You Are: An Eight-Country Comparison of Consumers’ Food Waste Habits. Sustainability 2023, 15, 430. Iori, E.; Masotti, M.; Falasconi, L.; Risso, E.; Segrè, A.; Vittuari, M. Tell Me What You Waste and I’ll Tell You Who You Are: An Eight-Country Comparison of Consumers’ Food Waste Habits. Sustainability 2023, 15, 430.

Abstract

Starting from an original survey conducted in eight countries in 2021 (Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, UK, and USA), this research explores the relationship between household food waste and dietary habits in a cross-country comparative perspective. 8,000 questionnaires were recorded from samples representative of adult population of each country through an online survey conducted between the 13th and the 24th of August. The questionnaires were built on the work of Waste Watcher International Observatory on Food and Sustainability, an international observatory of social, behavioral and lifestyles dynamics behind household food waste. Relationship between per capita self-reported amount of food waste (expressed in kilocalories) and self-declared dietary habits (Traditional, Healthy and Sustainable, Vegetarian, Smart, Confused) was estimated using multiple linear regression models. Results show that Smart diets are associated with higher values of food waste in Canada, Spain, UK and USA. Vegetarian diets are associated to lower food waste values in China, Germany, UK and USA but not in Italy, Russia and Spain. Since the share of population adopting a Smart diet is on average 2.7% of the sample, interventions for food waste reduction should focus on this specific type of consumers, often associated to larger amounts of food waste.

Keywords

household food waste; diets; food choices; dietary patterns

Subject

Social Sciences, Other

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