Jia Li, Zhang Yaoqi, Qiao Guanghua
College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010000, China.
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
Foods. 2022 Oct 5;11(19):3098. doi: 10.3390/foods11193098.
Food waste in the catering industry currently accounts for almost half of the total food waste in China and entails a large amount of land, water, and labor costs, in addition to the carbon footprint's impacts on climate change. Under the background of increasing food consumption and waste from online catering, this study investigates the factors influencing the food waste behaviors (FW) of online food ordering in China and provides policy recommendations for food waste reduction. Using survey data from 482 consumers, we constructed a theoretical framework and examined the influence path of each factor using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a bootstrap test. The results showed that young consumers without farming experience and females wasted more on ordering food online. The more frequently the consumer ordered, the more they wasted. The level of consumers' perceived behavioral control (PBC) was found to be lower than other factors, indicating that it was difficult for consumers to reduce food waste. Attitudes toward behavior (ATT), subjective norm (SN), PBC, and price consciousness (PC) were all positively related to behavioral intention to reduce food waste (BI). PBC and BI were negatively related to FW, and over-consumption behavior (OC) was positively related to FW. BI had a mediating effect on the paths of ATT, PBC, and PC to FW, but the pathway through which PC influenced FW was primarily through BI or PBC, not OC. In our research, BI had no mediating effect between SN and FW. Ultimately, our findings inform some policy recommendations to help nations, restaurants, food-ordering platforms, and consumers reduce waste.
目前，餐饮行业的食物浪费几乎占中国食物浪费总量的一半，除了碳足迹对气候变化的影响外，还带来了大量的土地、水和劳动力成本。在在线餐饮食品消费和浪费不断增加的背景下，本研究调查了影响中国在线订餐食物浪费行为（FW）的因素，并为减少食物浪费提供了政策建议。利用482名消费者的调查数据，我们构建了一个理论框架，并使用结构方程模型（SEM）和自抽样检验来检验各因素的影响路径。结果表明，没有务农经验的年轻消费者和女性在网上订餐时浪费更多。消费者订餐越频繁，浪费就越多。发现消费者的感知行为控制（PBC）水平低于其他因素，这表明消费者难以减少食物浪费。行为态度（ATT）、主观规范（SN）、PBC和价格意识（PC）均与减少食物浪费的行为意图（BI）呈正相关。PBC和BI与FW呈负相关，过度消费行为（OC）与FW呈正相关。BI在ATT、PBC和PC影响FW的路径中起中介作用，但PC影响FW的路径主要是通过BI或PBC，而不是OC。在我们的研究中，BI在SN和FW之间没有中介作用。最终，我们的研究结果为一些政策建议提供了依据，以帮助国家、餐馆、订餐平台和消费者减少浪费。
