Food waste: a survey about consumers and their attitudes

This study is aimed at highlighting the phenomenon of food waste. The objectives of this study are, in particular, to describe (through a literature review) the data of this phenomenon and its consequences in the whole food chain. Secondly, we want to highlight the role of consumers, in order to have also a marketing perspective. The first part of this research has been focused on a review of scientific literature. Ponis et al. (2017) investigated the effects of the business habits of 500 Greek families, They found no link between shopping habits and food waste, showing on the contrary an association between eating preferences and wasting; moreover according to their research people who shop in a moren frivolous way tend to throw away more food. Campoy-Munoz et al. (2017) recently assessed the economic impact of reducing food waste in Germany, Spain and Poland through social accounting matrices., showing how food waste reduction has a different impact considering the different economic structure of a country. Eriksson et al. (2017) focused on Sweden: they have quantified food waste in public catering services in a Swedish municipality. Tostivint C. et al. (2017) measured, in the milk sector in Pakistan, the main methodological principles of the Global Food Loss & Waste (FLW) protocol, highlighting a waste of 1.4 % in the whole chain. Another study focused on consumers and waste is that of Stefan et al. (2013), who found that planning and shopping routines predict food waste, for example moral attitudes are important to avoid this negative phenomenon; Graham Rowe, Jessop and Sparks (2014) showed four categories of barriers which minimize food waste, that are: 1) a good provider identity, 2) minimizing inconvenience, 3) lack of priority and 4) exemption from responsibility. It is important, furthermore, to cite Segrè as one of the most productive authors in Italy on this issue. In one of his book, published in 2010, he discusses about the social initiative “Last Minute Market”.