Food-related practices in the households

Food waste is the last step in the household food provisioning, thus, it is closely linked to food-related practices in previous steps. Some of these food-related practices can be seen as food waste preventing as they help minimize food waste, while others can be seen as food waste promoting as they may result in food waste.

45 Food-related practices in the Planning & Shopping stage

The practices of planning the shopping trips or planning the meals in advance can be seen as food waste preventing (the first two practices in Figure 24). On the other hand, the practices related to making unplanned purchases or buying more than necessary can be considered food waste promoting practices (the remaining practices in Figure 24).

The majority of people often check their food inventories at home before going grocery shopping. On the other hand, making meal plans is not such a common practice. In terms of food waste promoting practices, the most frequent one relates to buying products that were not planned, while the least common one refers to buying food products that people already have at home (see Figure 24).

Figure 24. Frequency of planning and shopping practices (food waste preventing in green margins and food waste promoting in red margins)

Food-related practices in the Storage stage

In the storage stage, practices such as having a good overview of the food that people have at home, knowing for how long food has been in the fridge, storing food as seen in the supermarket (storage in fridge or not), storing meal leftovers in the fridge in transparent or clearly visible containers, and storing leftovers in the freezer (the first five practices in Figure 25), can be considered as food waste preventing practices. On the other hand, forgetting

No. Respondents = 508

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food in the fridge until it is too old to eat or forgetting to use the food from the freezer are practices that promote food waste (the remaining practices in Figure 25).

A vast majority of respondents engage often or almost always in food waste preventing practices in relation to storage. While most respondents report that in their household they almost never forget about the food in the fridge or the freezer, more than a third of respondents say they often do so (see Figure 25).

Figure 25. Frequency of storage practices (food waste preventing in green margins and food waste promoting in red margins)

Food-related practices in the Cooking and preparing food stage

At the cooking and food preparing stage, there are several practices that can result in more or less food waste in the households. Practices like checking what food products are available at home before starting to cook, prioritizing leftovers and products close to expiry when cooking, using the leftovers in the lunch pack for the coming day or following a set meal plan when cooking can prevent food waste (the first four practices in Figure 26). On the contrary, when households intentionally cook more food than needed in order to ensure that there will be enough or when households do not eat all the food prepared for a meal, they can end up discarding more food (the remaining practices in Figure 26).

Most of the respondents engage in food waste preventing practices frequently, except for following a meal plan when cooking. This is not surprising as in the planning stage we found that many people do not make a meal plan

No. Respondents = 508

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for the coming days. When it comes to practices that promote food waste, most respondents report that these practices are frequent in their household (see Figure 26).

Figure 26. Frequency of cooking practices (food waste preventing in green margins and food waste promoting in red margins)

Food-related practices and norms in the Eating stage

In the eating stage people’s beliefs about what is proper behaviour when eating, the variety of foods served for a meal or variations in the number of people who eat at home, can result in food waste as these aspects can add complexity to the management of food at home.

In general everyone in the household is reported to eat the same food for dinner. When it comes to proper eating behaviour, half of the respondents strongly believe that one should always eat what is on one’s plate when eating at home. On the other hand, the food waste promoting practices do not seem to be largely widespread among the participants (see Figure 27).

No. Respondents = 508

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Figure 27. Eating related practices and norms (food waste preventing in green margins and food waste promoting in red margins)

Coordination of household food-related practices

The lack of coordination between household members in relation to food-related activities may result in food waste. Yet, in this study most participants stated that they almost never experience lack of coordination regarding specific practices in their household (see Figure 28).

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Figure 28. Extent of coordination between members of the household regarding food-related activities

Section summary - Food-related practices in the households

Overall, the participants engage frequently in food waste preventing practices (those behaviours that may result in lower food waste). There were also some exceptions. In particular, making a meal plan or following a meal plan when cooking were not very common.

On the other hand, the respondents reported that in their household food waste promoting practices (those behaviours that may contribute to higher food waste) are less frequent. However, some practices, such as making unplanned purchases, intentionally cooking more than needed to make sure that there will be enough and having leftovers after a meal, are quite common.