IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i4p1495-d321675.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Household Food Waste: A Case Study in Southern Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Azzurra Annunziata

    (Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy)

  • Massimiliano Agovino

    (Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy)

  • Aniello Ferraro

    (Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy)

  • Angela Mariani

    (Department of Economic and Legal Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, 80133 Naples, Italy)

Abstract

To achieve the goal of reducing consumer-related food waste in developed countries, it is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of the factors shaping food waste, both in the household as well as at the point of purchase. Despite a growing number of studies on the subject, especially in recent years, the evidence on drivers of food waste and barriers to its reduction is somewhat conflicting. The current paper contributes to existing knowledge on food waste behaviour at the consumer level, providing original results from a direct survey conducted with a sample randomly selected in southern Italy to reveal consumer awareness, concerns and intentions towards food waste and to ascertain the existence of different consumer profiles with similar food waste behaviour. Since southern Italian regions have been shown to produce lower levels of food waste than regions in northern Italy, an in-depth analysis of the drivers behind food waste in this area could be considered an interesting case study. Our findings showed the existence of several consumer behaviour profiles that influenced household food waste generation. Strategies to reduce waste should take such differences into account in order to promote changes in food waste behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Azzurra Annunziata & Massimiliano Agovino & Aniello Ferraro & Angela Mariani, 2020. "Household Food Waste: A Case Study in Southern Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1495-:d:321675
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1495/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1495/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica Aschemann-Witzel & Ilona De Hooge & Pegah Amani & Tino Bech-Larsen & Marije Oostindjer, 2015. "Consumer-Related Food Waste: Causes and Potential for Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Fredrik Wikström & Karli Verghese & Rafael Auras & Annika Olsson & Helén Williams & Renee Wever & Kaisa Grönman & Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen & Hanne Møller & Risto Soukka, 2019. "Packaging Strategies That Save Food: A Research Agenda for 2030," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(3), pages 532-540, June.
    3. Cecere, Grazia & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2014. "Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 163-176.
    4. Michelini, Laura & Principato, Ludovica & Iasevoli, Gennaro, 2018. "Understanding Food Sharing Models to Tackle Sustainability Challenges," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 205-217.
    5. Massimo Canali & Pegah Amani & Lusine Aramyan & Manuela Gheoldus & Graham Moates & Karin Östergren & Kirsi Silvennoinen & Keith Waldron & Matteo Vittuari, 2016. "Food Waste Drivers in Europe, from Identification to Possible Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-33, December.
    6. Secondi, Luca & Principato, Ludovica & Laureti, Tiziana, 2015. "Household food waste behaviour in EU-27 countries: A multilevel analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 25-40.
    7. Claudia Giordano & Fabrizio Alboni & Luca Falasconi, 2019. "Quantities, Determinants, and Awareness of Households’ Food Waste in Italy: A Comparison between Diary and Questionnaires Quantities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Danyi Qi & Brian E Roe, 2016. "Household Food Waste: Multivariate Regression and Principal Components Analyses of Awareness and Attitudes among U.S. Consumers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ulrich Jürgens, 2023. "Does Food Shopping Behaviour Determine Food Waste Vulnerability in Private Households? Quantitative Analysis on Case Studies from Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Matteo Vittuari & Luca Falasconi & Matteo Masotti & Simone Piras & Andrea Segrè & Marco Setti, 2020. "‘Not in My Bin’: Consumer’s Understanding and Concern of Food Waste Effects and Mitigating Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    3. Azzurra Annunziata & Francisco Luis Muca & Angela Mariani, 2022. "Preventing Household Food Waste in Italy: A Segmentation of the Population and Suggestions for Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Vera Amicarelli & Caterina Tricase & Alessia Spada & Christian Bux, 2021. "Households’ Food Waste Behavior at Local Scale: A Cluster Analysis after the COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Lea Kubíčková & Lucie Veselá & Marcela Kormaňáková, 2021. "Food Waste Behaviour at the Consumer Level: Pilot Study on Czech Private Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-24, October.
    6. Gabriel, Andreas & Rombach, Meike & Wieser, Hannah & Bitsch, Vera, 2021. "Got waste: knowledge, behavior and self-assessment on food waste of university students in Germany," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 24(6), February.
    7. Panpan Zhang & Dan Zhang & Shengkui Cheng, 2020. "The Effect of Consumer Perception on Food Waste Behavior of Urban Households in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-14, July.
    8. Marc Juanpera & Judit M. Fernández-Novell & Albert Soler-Noguera & Maria Antonia De los Santos & Daniel Carpintero & Laia Ferrer-Martí & Rafael Pastor, 2022. "Procedure for an Effective Quick and Targeted Distribution of Product to Final Beneficiaries by a Social Food Bank," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    9. Mirza Marvel Cequea & Jessika Milagros Vásquez Neyra & Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt & Marcos Ferasso, 2021. "Household Food Consumption and Wastage during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: A Comparison between Peru and Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-22, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Efrat Elimelech & Eyal Ert & Ofira Ayalon, 2019. "Exploring the Drivers behind Self-Reported and Measured Food Wastage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Ovidija Eičaitė & Gitana Alenčikienė & Ingrida Pauliukaitytė & Alvija Šalaševičienė, 2021. "Eat or Throw Away? Factors Differentiating High Food Wasters from Low Food Wasters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Principato, Ludovica & Secondi, Luca & Cicatiello, Clara & Mattia, Giovanni, 2022. "Caring more about food: The unexpected positive effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on household food management and waste," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    4. Ewelina M. Marek-Andrzejewska & Anna Wielicka-Regulska, 2021. "Targeting Youths’ Intentions to Avoid Food Waste: Segmenting for Better Policymaking," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Alessandra C. Grasso & Margreet R. Olthof & Anja J. Boevé & Corné van Dooren & Liisa Lähteenmäki & Ingeborg A. Brouwer, 2019. "Socio-Demographic Predictors of Food Waste Behavior in Denmark and Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Matthew James Grainger & Lusine Aramyan & Simone Piras & Thomas Edward Quested & Simone Righi & Marco Setti & Matteo Vittuari & Gavin Bruce Stewart, 2018. "Model selection and averaging in the assessment of the drivers of household food waste to reduce the probability of false positives," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Matteo Vittuari & Luca Falasconi & Matteo Masotti & Simone Piras & Andrea Segrè & Marco Setti, 2020. "‘Not in My Bin’: Consumer’s Understanding and Concern of Food Waste Effects and Mitigating Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    8. Noora Sirola & Ulla-Maija Sutinen & Elina Närvänen & Nina Mesiranta & Malla Mattila, 2019. "Mottainai!—A Practice Theoretical Analysis of Japanese Consumers’ Food Waste Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-14, November.
    9. Ghinea Valentina Mihaela & Cantaragiu Ramona Elena & Ghinea Mihalache, 2020. "FEED - Modeling the relationship between education and food waste," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 755-768, July.
    10. Piras, Simone & Righi, Simone & Setti, Marco & Koseoglu, Nazli & Grainger, Matthew & stewart, Gavin & Vittuari, Matteo, 2021. "From social interactions to private environmental behaviours: The case of consumer food waste," SocArXiv 7k4vy, Center for Open Science.
    11. Claudia Giordano & Fabrizio Alboni & Luca Falasconi, 2019. "Quantities, Determinants, and Awareness of Households’ Food Waste in Italy: A Comparison between Diary and Questionnaires Quantities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Lucie K. Ozanne & Paul W. Ballantine & Aimee McMaster, 2022. "Understanding Food Waste Produced by University Students: A Social Practice Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Luca Falasconi & Clara Cicatiello & Silvio Franco & Andrea Segrè & Marco Setti & Matteo Vittuari, 2019. "Such a Shame! A Study on Self-Perception of Household Food Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, January.
    14. Ronja Herzberg & Thomas G. Schmidt & Felicitas Schneider, 2020. "Characteristics and Determinants of Domestic Food Waste: A Representative Diary Study across Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.
    15. Luca Secondi, 2019. "Expiry Dates, Consumer Behavior, and Food Waste: How Would Italian Consumers React If There Were No Longer “Best Before” Labels?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Chen Liu & Trung Thang Nguyen, 2020. "Evaluation of Household Food Waste Generation in Hanoi and Policy Implications towards SDGs Target 12.3," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-20, August.
    17. Lingfei Wang & Yuqin Yang & Guoyan Wang, 2022. "The Clean Your Plate Campaign: Resisting Table Food Waste in an Unstable World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    18. Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica & de Hooge, Ilona E. & Almli, Valérie L., 2021. "My style, my food, my waste! Consumer food waste-related lifestyle segments," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    19. Maria Luisa Scalvedi & Laura Rossi, 2021. "Comprehensive Measurement of Italian Domestic Food Waste in a European Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, February.
    20. Jingjing Wang & Mingyue Li & Sinan Li & Kai Chen, 2022. "Understanding Consumers’ Food Waste Reduction Behavior—A Study Based on Extended Norm Activation Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-15, April.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1495-:d:321675. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.