![]() ![]() The diverse motivations, contexts, and responses that influence all consumers call for a nuanced approach to research on both drivers of food waste behavior and interventions to change that behavior to take these differences into account. However, multiple factors, including race, gender, and education level, intersect with poverty in ways that are important for food waste research, as for almost any social science research. The fact that low-income and more affluent consumers may respond to issues related to food waste differently suggests that they may need to be considered separately. However, the existing research on food waste and equity focuses primarily on the role of donations to feed those who are food insecure, rather than on identifying drivers or long-term solutions related to improving equity or reducing food waste ( Riches, 2011 Tarasuk and Eakin, 2005 Warshawsky, 2015). ![]() These are just two of the ways food may have different meanings for consumers with low-incomes and higher-incomes, and reasons they may respond differently to interventions to reduce food waste. Also, the food available through government allocations, food banks, and charities is different in many ways from that available to more affluent consumers. The relative expense of food is much higher for low-income than for higher-income consumers, even though the food available in their communities may be of lower quality and less varied. Researchers can turn to other methods, such as ethnographic analysis, to better understand how people, particularly those with low incomes, interact with food and food waste. Thus, reaching them to learn about their motivations and experiences is difficult. Investigating questions about the role of income level in food waste is challenging, in part because many consumers with low income lack access to the digital connections researchers use for online data collection, and they, like other consumers, may also lack familiarity with ordinary survey instruments. For example, some studies have suggested that households with higher income waste more (e.g., Filipová et al., 2017 Soma, 2019 Verma et al., 2020), while other work suggests that households with low income may waste more of certain items, such as lower-quality foods purchased in bulk ( Setti et al., 2016). For example, consumers with low levels of interest in food and food waste are not likely to be swayed by economic, normative, or ethical appeals designed to increase awareness but may respond best to structural interventions such as “nudges 1” ( Thaler and Sunstein, 2008).Īn important question is how income level influences the wasting of food, although the available research on this question is not conclusive. The complexity of these segments illustrates that reducing food waste involves more than simply raising consumer awareness. 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 fourth group does not consider price but is interested in taste, food safety, and optimal choice, and reports a medium level of food waste. ![]() A third group is very engaged in cooking, is concerned about price and taste, and plans in advance, and reports low levels of food waste. Another group is concerned with price but dislikes cooking this group reports low levels of food waste. In this categorization, one group likes cooking, considers price and taste important, but does not plan in advance, and reports a medium level of food waste. Researchers have suggested that consumers can be divided into five segments based on their food waste practices ( Aschemann-Witzel et al., 2018). For others, avoiding food waste may have become a habit. For example, Aschemann-Witzel and colleagues (2018) found that among those consumers who thought about food waste at the grocery store, the top reason for doing so was saving money, but many also considered the goal of reducing waste overall, environmental concerns, or the need to ensure food access for all. Consumers’ individual characteristics naturally have implications for their food waste behavior: people respond in varying ways to situations in which decisions about food are made. ![]()
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