IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v82y2025ics0969698924004156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Predicting household food waste behavior: Bringing food literacy and purchasing power into the theory of planned behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Adaryani, Rasool Lavaei
  • Palouj, Mojtaba
  • Gholami, Hesamedin
  • Baghestany, Ali Akbar
  • Damirchi, Milad Joodi
  • Dadar, Mohsen
  • Seifollahi, Naser

Abstract

In today's world, food waste has become a growing concern, mainly due to the behavior of consumers or actors, which poses a serious dilemma for a sustainable food supply. Prior research on food waste management has shed light on a few predictors of food waste behavior (FWB), mainly with a socio-cognitive lens. Thus, this empirical research seeks to explore household food waste determinants in Tehran city, Iran, from a more comprehensive perspective. To this end, food expenditure, purchasing power, food literacy, technical opportunities, awareness of consequences, and economic initiatives are integrated into the theory of planned behavior. Totally, 349 Iranian women, responsible for food preparation from purchasing to disposal in the family, were surveyed. The model developed in this research was tested employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our study reveals that being aware of the moral consequences (AMCs) is the most influential factor in predicting FWB. The findings show that, except for subjective norms, other main constructs of TPB, namely perceived behavioral control and attitude, considerably affect the behavioral intention to reduce food waste. Our study confirms that households with higher purchasing power are more likely to avoid food waste than those who spend more on food. Our findings suggest that food literacy and technical opportunities play a positive role in reducing food waste. Finally, households that receive economic initiatives are more likely to discard food.

Suggested Citation

  • Adaryani, Rasool Lavaei & Palouj, Mojtaba & Gholami, Hesamedin & Baghestany, Ali Akbar & Damirchi, Milad Joodi & Dadar, Mohsen & Seifollahi, Naser, 2025. "Predicting household food waste behavior: Bringing food literacy and purchasing power into the theory of planned behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:82:y:2025:i:c:s0969698924004156
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.104119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698924004156
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2024.104119?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:82:y:2025:i:c:s0969698924004156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.