Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 May 29;15(5):e0233287. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233287. eCollection 2020.
American households discard a significant amount of food that represent a sizable portion of their food expenditures. This study adds to our understanding of product attributes associated with food waste, with a focus on cosmetic deterioration during home storage. Specifically, we profile a sample of U.S. individuals by patterns of common food-related behaviors and determine the effects of product attributes on food waste tendencies at the point of consumption by distinct behavioral profiles. An interactive survey at the Minnesota State Fair (N = 333) was used to obtain measurements on food-related behavior and sociodemographic factors. The survey included a conjoint task to elicit food discard tendencies to construct the food waste proxy. The study considered cosmetic deterioration, date labels, implied shelf life, package size, and prices paid, in fresh, packaged spinach and ground beef products. Factor analysis and latent class modeling categorized the sample into two classes, revealing distinct food-related behavioral patterns. Planners, who constituted a slight majority in our sample, were likely to have established pre-shopping and in-store behavior and food management and cooking skills. Extemporaneous Consumers had inferior food handling routines and were less knowledgeable and skilled in the kitchen. Regression analysis using a random-effects tobit model showed Extemporaneous Consumers were prone to waste a greater portion of the spinach product than Planners. Otherwise, both classes showed similar increases in likelihood to discard the products, as their appearance deteriorated. Their tendency to waste increased with shorter remaining shelf life for spinach but not for ground beef, and was not affected by the date label type. Results suggest an intervention that targets a general audience designed to enhance people's skills to discern edibility of food in home storage by manipulating sensory expectations from cosmetic deterioration could be impactful in efforts to curtail food waste.
美国家庭扔掉了大量的食物，这些食物占他们食品支出的很大一部分。本研究通过关注家庭储存过程中的外观恶化，增加了我们对与食品浪费相关的产品属性的理解。具体来说，我们通过常见食品相关行为模式对美国个体进行了样本分析，并根据不同的行为模式确定了产品属性对消费点食品浪费倾向的影响。在明尼苏达州博览会上进行的一项互动调查（N=333）用于获取与食品相关的行为和社会人口因素的测量值。该调查包括一项联合任务，以了解食品丢弃倾向，从而构建食品浪费代理。研究考虑了外观恶化、日期标签、暗示保质期、包装尺寸和支付价格，以新鲜包装菠菜和碎牛肉产品为例。因子分析和潜在类别建模将样本分为两类，揭示了不同的食品相关行为模式。在我们的样本中，计划者略占多数，他们可能已经制定了购物前和店内行为以及食品管理和烹饪技能。临时消费者的食品处理程序较差，在厨房中知识和技能较差。使用随机效应 Tobit 模型的回归分析表明，临时消费者比计划者更容易浪费更多的菠菜产品。否则，随着产品外观恶化，两个类别都显示出丢弃产品的可能性相似增加。他们浪费的倾向随着菠菜剩余保质期的缩短而增加，但对于碎牛肉则没有增加，并且不受日期标签类型的影响。研究结果表明，针对普通受众的干预措施旨在通过操纵从外观恶化中产生的感官预期，增强人们在家中储存食物时辨别可食用性的技能，这可能对减少食物浪费的努力产生影响。
