Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour in relation to generation of food waste: Food Safety - MSc. dissertation

TABLES

Table 1 Justification of the questions

Table 2 Number of people in households

Table 3 How frequently do you buy food from the following locations?

Table 4 Total number of occurrences in different shopping locations

Table 5 What is your main reason for throwing food commodities away?

Table 6 How long do you keep your leftover food under the following storage conditions before throwing it away?

Table 7 Which definition best defines ‘Best before date’ and ‘Use by’?

Table 8 How often the food label was read

Table 9 Which of the following statements most closely match your concern regarding food waste?

FIGURES

Figure 1 Select the gender you identify with

Figure 2 Participants ages ranges

Figure 3 Participants education level

Figure 4 Are you the main shopper for your household?

Figure 5 Which setting do you live in?

Figure 6 Quantity of food usually bought overall during both periods

Figure 7 How often have you cooked meals outside and during the lockdown period?

Figure 8 When planning and shopping for meals, which of the following best describe what you do?

Figure 9 What percentage of the following food commodities have you thrown away during and outside lockdown?

Figure 10 What is generally done with leftover food

Figure 11 Participant’s perception about the amount of food waste produced during lockdown periods in comparison with outside lockdowns

Figure 12 Which of the following would you find useful to help reduce food waste?

Figure 13 You would reduce your food waste if…

ABBREVIATIONS

COVID ……………………………………………………................. Coronavirus disease

EFSA ..................................................................... European Food Safety Authority

FAO …………………………………………………… Food and Agriculture Organization

FREC ………………Faculty of Engineering and Science Research Ethics Committee

OECD............................ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

RTS …………………………………………………….......... Recycle Track Systems, Inc.

SDGs …………………………………………………….  Sustainable Development Goals

UN …………………………………...............….………………………........ United Nations

UNDP ………………………………………………… United Nations Development Fund

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

Food waste has become a very concerning issue worldwide and namely in developed countries. Wasting food that could safely be consumed has reached such considerable amounts, in terms of food treated as rubbish and the impact on global economies.

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) included food waste as a target in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals. It aimed at decreasing by 50% the amount of food wasted per capita both at retail and consumer levels (Target 12.3). According to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year while almost 2 billion people go hungry or undernourished (UNDP 2020).

Across the complex food chain, from farm to fork, a study made by of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) found that one third of the food produced for human consumption is never consumed (FAO 2015). FAO considers that it is either due to inefficiencies in food production and processing or because it has been thrown out by consumers (due to excess food shopping, food spoiled and consumer behaviours) at the end of the food chain. Food waste or loss happens depending on when it falls off the chain. In general, food waste is tendentiously observed when it occurs during industrial processing, distribution, and final consumption (consumer stratum).

Food waste can result from insufficient shopping and meal planning as well as promotions like buy one get one free as they lead to too much purchased or prepared food. Understanding why food waste occurs is critical in order to build more sustainable food systems.

The aim of the dissertation was to determine whether there was more food waste generated during the pandemic’s lockdown periods. Through an online questionnaire, the objectives were to learn whether the effects of the pandemic and lockdowns changed participants’ food shopping and consuming habits, as well as food handling, that could have contributed to an increase in food wasted at household level.

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW

Food waste refers to food fit for human consumption but consciously being discarded at the consumption or retail phases and not redirected to animal feed or re-distributed