Widening the scope of responsible innovation: food waste and the role of consumers

Figures & data

Table 1. Codes identified and the number of times they were applied per question.

	Communication with store or producer	Gaining information or knowledge	Increased awareness/attitude change	New eating/buying behaviour	Other	Planning	Packaging/portioning	Using/developing technology to reduce food waste	Storage	Making demands to producers or suppliers	Using leftovers or less attractive foods	Smell, taste, look	Trust	Shorter value chains	Incentives	Producers/suppliers making demands to consumers	Totals
1. What is my responsibility as a consumer to reduce food waste?	3	2	1	3	2	5	0	1	4	4	2	2	0	0	0	1	30
2. What do you need in order to take more responsibility for food waste as a consumer?	0	7	7	2	5	4	2	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	36
3. What responsibility do you expect the companies in the food value chain to take to reduce food waste?	0	2	2	1	0	0	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	13
4. How can you as a private person influence the companies in the food value chain to think in novel ways to prevent food waste?	14	4	0	4	3	0	3	3	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	35
Totals	17	15	10	10	10	9	9	9	8	5	3	2	2	2	2	1	0

Table 2. Distribution of points regarding question 4.

	Communication with store or producer	Gaining information or knowledge	New eating/buying behaviour	Other	Packaging/portioning	Storage	Trust	Using leftovers or less attractive foods	Using/developing technology to reduce food waste	Totals
Oslo	6	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
Pisa	1	1	4	1	3	1	1	1	3	16
Fredrikstad	7	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	11
Totals	14	4	4	3	3	1	2	1	3	0

Table 3. Questions 1–5: ‘(a) Not at all, (b) Less than a tenth, (c) More than a tenth but less than a quarter, (d) More than a quarter but less than a half, (e) More than a half’ 1 = strongly disagree/7 = strongly agree.

No	N = 42	Factors	Mean	St. dev.
1	How much food would you say that you throw away, of what you buy and/or grow, in a regular week?	Food waste	2.2	0.7
2	How much milk and dairy products would you say that you throw away, of what you buy and/or grow, in a regular week?	Food waste	1.6	0.8
3	How much fresh fruits and vegetables would you say that you throw away, of what you buy and/or grow, in a regular week?	Food waste	2.1	0.8
4	How much meat and fish would you say that you throw away, of what you buy and/or grow, in a regular week?	Food waste	1.3	0.5
5	How much bread and other bakery products would you say that you throw away, of what you buy and/or grow, in a regular week?	Food waste	2.0	1.0
6	How likely is it that you will not throw away food during the next week?	Intention not to waste food	4.0	2.0
7	I intend not to throw away any food over the next week	Intention not to waste food	5.9	1.6
8	In general, I try very hard not to throw away food	Intention not to waste food	6.2	1.1
9	How frequently do you make a list of the food you want to buy prior to your shopping trip?	Planning routines	4.7	2.0
10	How frequently do you check your food inventories prior to your shopping trip?	Planning routines	5.3	1.1
11	How often do you plan your meals, in advance, for several days ahead?	Planning routines	4.2	1.6
12	How frequently would you say that you buy too much food (more than you need or can eat) when you go shopping?	Shopping routines	3.1	1.6
13	How frequently would you say that you buy food items that you did not intend to buy?	Shopping routines	3.9	1.7
14	Throwing away food does not bother me.	Moral attitudes	3.2	1.8
15	When I throw away food, I feel guilty.	Moral attitudes	4.0	2.5
16	I do not really worry about the environmental impact of the food that I throw away.	Lack of concern	3.8	2.3
17	I do not really worry about the impact of my food waste on the distribution of resources in the world	Lack of concern	2.4	1.4
18	I do not really worry about the amount of food that I throw away	Lack of concern	2.8	1.6
19	I do not really worry about the cost of the food that I throw away	Lack of concern	2.6	1.8
20	Most people important to me disapprove of me cooking/preparing more than enough food.	Subjected to norms	2.1	1.4
21	Most people important to me disapprove of me throwing out some food.	Subjected to norms	3.9	1.9
22	It is very difficult for me to predict exactly how much food is going to be eaten in my household over a regular week.	Perceived behavioural control	4.0	1.9
23	I am able to cook and prepare exactly the amount of food that my household needs.	Perceived behavioural control	4.4	1.9
24	I am able to buy exactly the amount of food that my household needs.	Perceived behavioural control	4.5	1.8
25	Estimated food waste generated in the different steps in the chain
(a)	Food producers		17.2	10.6
(b)	Food industry		21.6	12.3
(c)	Retail		26.7	12.1
(d)	Hotels/Restaurants		19.6	11.3
(e)	Households Correct 54%		17.2	8.3

Question 6: Scale 1–7: where 1 = Not at all likely and 7 = Extremely likely. Questions 7–8: Scale: ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (7). Questions 9–13: Scale: ‘never’ (1) to ‘always’ (7). Questions 14–24: Scale: ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (7). Question 25: percentage of food waste indicated for the chain steps.

Table 4. The difference in mean attitudes before and after Christmas.

	Before Christmas (N = 42)	After Christmas (N = 28)	Comparison
Moral attitudes	5.44	6.23	t(68) = −2.39, p < 0.05
Lack of concern	2.44	2.22	t(68) = 0.79, p > 0.05
Subjective norms	3.61	4.34	t(68) = −1.97, p > 0.05

Table 5. Grouping respondents with similar extreme positions.

Sample	Moral attitudes	Lack concern	Subj norms	Perceived control	Observations
1/Pisa	7.00	1.25	5.50	6.00	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms, with a good perceived behavioural control (conscious)
1	7.00	1.25	4.50	2.67	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
1	7.00	2.25	5.00	3.33	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
1	7.00	1.75	1.00	7.00	Extremely moral, highly concerned and with an extremely good behavioural control but not subjected to norms (intrinsic)
1	7.00	2.00	6.50	2.67	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
1	7.00	2.75	6.00	1.33	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
1	7.00	1.00	5.50	3.00	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
1	6.00	7.00	1.50	5.00	Not moral, highly unconcerned, not subjected to norms, but with a good perceived behavioural control (instrumental)
2/Fr.stad	7.00	2.00	4.00	3.67	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
2	7.00	2.75	2.50	3.00	Extremely moral, highly concerned, not subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
2	7.00	3.00	1.50	2.67	Extremely moral, highly concerned, not subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
2	6.50	1.00	1.00	5.67	Extremely moral and concerned and with extreme behavioural control but not subjected to norms (intrinsic)
3/Oslo	7.00	1.00	4.00	7.00	Extremely moral and concerned and with extreme behavioural control but not subjected to norms (intrinsic)
3	3.00	3.25	4.00	7.00	Not very moral, not very concerned, not very subjected to norms but with extreme perceived behavioural control (instrumental)
3	3.50	4.50	4.00	7.00	Not very moral, not very concerned, not very subjected to norms but with extreme perceived behavioural control (instrumental)
3	7.00	1.75	1.50	4.33	Extremely moral, highly concerned and not subjected to norms but struggling with behavioural control
3	4.00	2.25	1.00	5.33	Not very moral, not very concerned, extremely not subjected to norms but with good perceived behavioural control (instrumental)
3	7.00	2.00	4.50	5.67	Extremely moral, highly concerned and subjected to norms with a good perceived behavioural control (conscious)

Each row represents one respondent and the numerical score under each factor is the means of the scores for the items belonging to the respective factor.

Table 6. Own consumer grouping from the inductive analysis of extreme values in our survey, modified from Di Talia, Simeone, and Scarpato (2019), Gilli, Mancinelli, and Nicolli (2018), Auger, Devinney, and Louviere (2010), Vermeir and Verbeke (2006).

Consumer category	General definition	Food waste behaviour	Number of respondents in the first round of the questionnaire
Conscious	Conscious consumers are those with a ‘conscious and deliberate choice to make certain consumption decisions based on personal and moral beliefs’ (Auger, Devinney, and Louviere 2010)	Food waste is a serious problem, a reason for concern, they know the consequences and try to address it in their behaviour	2: 1 in Pisa, 1 in Oslo
Intrinsic	For intrinsic consumers ‘intrinsic motivation comes from an inner need to perform an action or to adopt a certain behaviour. For intrinsically motivated people, the reward comes from the action itself’ (Gilli, Mancinelli, and Nicolli 2018)	Food waste is a serious problem and a reason for individual concern, they are very good at addressing it in their own behaviour and disregard opinion of others, societal norms, and expectations	3: 1 in Pisa, 1 in Fredrikstad, 1 in Oslo
Struggling	Struggling consumers often experience the typical attitude-behaviour gap defined as ‘a gap between the positive attitude of consumers and their actual behaviour’ (Vermeir and Verbeke 2006)	Food waste is perceived a serious problem and a big reason for concern, nevertheless there is a mismatch between the theory and practice in controlling own food waste related behaviour	9: 5 in Pisa, 3 in Fredrikstad, 1 in Oslo
Instru-mental	Instrumental consumers ‘already show a slight tendency to avoid domestic waste because they do not throw away good food, even if they are unaware of the environmental, economic and ethical consequences of food waste’ (Di Talia, Simeone, and Scarpato 2019)	Food waste is not perceived a serious problem and they are not concerned, not very subjected to norms but nevertheless they are good in controlling their behaviour and avoiding waste (perhaps because avoiding food waste helps with other goals, having control, saving money, being efficient)	4: 1 in Pisa, 3 in Oslo

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