What a waste! Evidence of consumer food waste prevention and its effectiveness
Cecilia Casonato, Laura García-Herrero, Carla Caldeira, Serenella Sala
Abstract
Food waste is a great challenge hindering food system sustainability, embodying environmental impacts, economic costs as well as affecting food and nutritional security. Consumers are the most wasteful segment in the food supply chain, and policymakers have recognized the need to tackle consumer food waste by establishing the international reduction target of 50 % by 2030 in SGD 12.3. In order to reach this ambitious target, effective prevention interventions have to be implemented to enable consumers to reduce the amount of food they waste. This review aims to identify which are the different types of interventions conducted as well as their effectiveness in reducing consumer food waste. It does so by performing a systematic literature review according to the PRISMA protocol, through which 49 unique sources were selected for analysis, uncovering great heterogeneity in terms of types of interventions, methodologies and food waste reduction potential but also emphasizing how food waste literature is quickly evolving. Results included mostly examples of nudges, educational programs for school children and to a lesser extent awareness raising. A greater variety of approaches in intervention design and implementation, such as co-creation or the use of digital technologies is detected. The findings of this review help systematize the most recent evidence on food waste reduction efforts at consumer level and expose some gaps which need to be addressed in future research as well as opportunities for further exploitation of results. The food waste reduction potential identified by the actions gathered in the results of this review show that greater effort must be applied, if we are to reach internationally agreed targets. More consistent monitoring and reporting, knowledge sharing and replication of existing interventions are suggested to improve the evidence base on effective interventions. Cost benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness implications should also be included in future analyses and shared with the food waste prevention community in order to support the implementation of suitable policies.