Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
"If we want to get serious about tackling climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, businesses, governments, and citizens around the world have to do their part to reduce food waste. Reducing food waste would cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature through land conversion and pollution, enhance the availability of food and thus reduce hunger and save money at a time of global recession." Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
The UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021 shows that a considerable share of the total food produced worldwide is lost all along the supply chain, from harvest to delivery to retailers, each year. This currently happens to approximately 14% of the food produced but not available for consumers, while an additional 17% of the total food produced is wasted by households (11%), the food services sector (5%), and the retail sector (2%) (UNEP, 2021).
In the European Union, 69% of the total food waste originates from households, food service, and retail, with households contributing to over half (53%) of the food waste amount (Eurostat, 2022).
As underlined at the last UN Food System Summit (2021), food waste-related consumer behaviour raises ethical and economic concerns and environmental and social issues. It is, in fact, alarming that despite the pressing need for enhancing global climate action under Sustainable Development Goal 13 (‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’) (UN General Assembly, 2015), a considerable 8%-10% of global greenhouse gases emissions are still attributed to unconsumed food, including losses registered for food not even reaching consumers. What is even more worrying is that this occurs when globally, 821 million individuals are starving, and an additional 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet (UNEP, 2021). Similar circumstances exist in Europe, where approximately 36.2 million individuals are prevented to access to affordable, nutritious meals every second day (Eurostat, 2021), while roughly 10% of the food supplied to EU consumers through retail, food services, and households is wasted (Eurostat, 2022).
According to the Waste Watcher International Observatory on Food and Sustainability, in Italy over 150 kg of food per person are wasted yearly, an amount of food worth more than 9 billion euros along the entire supply chain (WWI Observatory, 2023). At the European level, the financial costs of food waste accounts for over 140 billion euros (Stenmarck et al., 2016).
As recommended by target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 12 (‘Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns’), on decreasing food losses along production and supply chains and halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 (UN General Assembly, 2015), many Governments across the globe are currently pursuing practical policy approaches aimed at preventing and reducing the phenomena of food waste (FW).
Since the adoption of its first Circular Economy Action Plan (2015), which led to the establishment of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste (FLW) in 2016, the European Commission consistently promotes the implementation of SDG 12 across its Member States, setting the EU-wide target to reduce food waste by 30% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030. Reducing food waste is also a key action of the most recent Farm-to-Fork Strategy, that promotes the adoption of more sustainable food production and consumption practices, as well as one of the goals of the new Circular Economy Action Plan adopted in 2020 as a crucial element of the European Green Deal (Laaninen, 2020).
To tackle the food waste issue at the national level, Italy has implemented a comprehensive political and strategic system guided by a clear and concise regulatory process initiated by the so-called ’Good Samaritan Law’ (D. Lgs. 155/2003) for effectively managing and distributing food surplus to those more in need. In 2016, Italy adopted the “Gadda Law” (D. Lgs. 166/2016), which aligns with the recommendations of the UN Agenda 2030, as it encourages the redistribution of excess food and pharmaceuticals products as a form of social solidarity by easing the bureaucratic burden and providing tax deductions and subsidies to public and private donors (Grant & Rossi, 2022).
Through the slogan ‘Smarter Behaviors for Healthier Diets’, Spoke 07, titled ‘Policy, behaviour and education’, aims at creating digital and technologically advanced tools and models to observe, analyse, and predict the impact of agricultural and food policies, as well as the behaviour of businesses and consumers. Those tools are expected to contribute to the planning, design, and implementation of public actions, educational programs, and communication campaigns to promote the adoption of healthy and more sustainable diets, while reducing food loss, surplus, and waste and promoting informed food consumption.
To achieve its goals, the Spoke 07 researchers will investigate and understand the multifaceted factors influencing food-related consumer behaviour, including economic, social, cultural, and psychological aspects.
The research team will actively develop and test strategies to increase the purchase and consumption of healthy and sustainable food in supermarkets, alternative food networks, public canteens, and other out-of-home settings.
Spoke 07 researchers will co-design and evaluate interventions to promote healthy, sustainable and waste-reducing eating habits, based on shared guidelines and tools for measuring, monitoring, and evaluating eating and food-related behaviours.
Cutting-edge technology will play a crucial role in achieving the objectives of the Spoke 07 project.
Researchers involved in Spoke 07 will also conduct in-depth studies addressing the educational needs of schools, by collaborating with educators to develop inclusive food education practices. The aim is to provide respectful and inclusive food education, encouraging healthy eating habits and curiosity for diverse food cultures. To reach this goal, the team will work with educators to design effective and engaging educational programs that meet the needs of all students. They will also focus on designing policies to promote sustainable and healthy diets as part of their final tasks. Researchers will analyse existing assessments of global public policies and generate new evidence adopting rigorous methods to evaluate policies adopted in Italy, Europe, and at a wider international level. Finally, the research team will produce evidence-based policy guidelines and recommendations, proposals to amend existing legislation, and input from stakeholders and policymakers.
Since 2010, studies investigating the relations between household food waste and consumer behaviour have significantly increased, leading to several reviews synthesising the current knowledge.
Scientific literature highlights that consumers’ food-related behaviours associated with household food waste may result in higher levels of waste, such as exclusively shopping at supermarkets, or lead to lower levels of waste, such as using meal plans and shopping lists. Consumer behaviours typically comprise broader household food provisioning practices encompassing planning, purchasing, storage, preparation, consumption, and disposal. Factors influencing food-related behaviours are multiple and may include intrinsic attitudes, values, knowledge, habits, and skills and external factors, such as social norms, product characteristics, regulatory frameworks, and retail environments. Reviews have also underlined that behaviours and factors influencing consumer food choices create a complicated network of potential interactions that can lead to food waste through different channels (Boulet et al., 2021).
Understanding and preventing food-related consumer behaviours, activities, and habits is a useful tool to prevent and reduce food waste globally and locally.
Accordingly, the main objective of Work Package 7.2 consists in implementing behavioural change interventions that promote sustainable diets in various settings. The purpose is to develop effective strategies that encourage people to purchase and consume healthy and sustainable food, whether in supermarkets, alternative food networks, public canteens, or out-of-home settings.
To achieve this, the WP 7.2 research team will collaborate to design and test a wide range of interventions to promote healthier and more sustainable eating habits while reducing food waste. The team will create guidelines and tools for measuring, monitoring and evaluating food-related behaviours, which will be used to assess the efficacy of the interventions and make necessary adjustments. Researchers will also involve local users in the co-design and testing the interventions to ensure their practicality and success in real-world scenarios.
Work Package 7.2 focuses on implementing national strategies to encourage sustainable diets in specific contexts. Their primary goal is to provide guidelines for designing and testing tailored interventions and to develop assessment tools for monitoring and evaluating food-related behaviours.
The team will also collaborate on testing various approaches developed to promote purchasing and consuming healthy and sustainable foods in supermarkets and other food networks. In addition, researchers will design and test interventions to promote healthy and sustainable eating habits, such as reducing food waste in public and home settings, by involving local users in the process.
Since its launch in 2013 by the University of Bologna and the Last-Minute Market, the Italian Waste Watcher Observatory (WASTEIT) has investigated the food waste phenomenon in Italy. The most recent report shows that in 2022 approximately 30 kg of food waste per inhabitant was generated only at the household level, resulting in almost 1.8 million tons of food wasted nationally.
Based on these data and other relevant research, it has been estimated that a considerable proportion of food waste can be attributed to consumer behaviour, with household waste contributing between 40 and 50% of the total food waste in Italy. As a result, growing attention has been reserved for the consumption stage, considered a critical behavioural issue with multiple interrelated and competing drivers.
Recent studies have also explored the link between dietary choices, nutrient intake, and pro-environmental behaviour, indirectly addressing the association with food waste.
The WASTEIT project, thus, aims to provide knowledge and tools to investigate the social, behavioural, and lifestyle variables contributing to household food waste.
The Observatory also aims to assess the effectiveness of public and private measures for preventing and reducing food waste. By generating and disseminating shared knowledge, the WASTEIT project seeks to guide individual actions, personal strategies, and public policies that improve food resource efficiency and reduce food waste. To achieve these goals, researchers of the WASTEIT project will:
For this reason, during the next three years, the research team of the WASTEIT project is expected to conduct annual surveys on representative samples of the Italian population. The surveys will explore social, behavioural, and lifestyle dynamics related to household food waste and the food preferences of Italian families. They will specifically focus on various factors that drive food waste behaviour, including personal preferences, cultural issues, spending habits, and consumption patterns.
Additionally, the surveys will examine the relationships between dietary choices, food waste, and the drivers behind those choices. Other research tools and methods will complement the surveys to assess individual behaviours, private strategies, and public interventions to prevent and reduce food waste. This approach will help identify best practices for preventing and reducing food waste at the individual (individual virtuous behaviour) and the public levels (which interventions are most effective and why).
“In order to halve food waste and reach the target stated in the UN 2030 Agenda, it is necessary to develop effective actions that public institutions, private organisations and individuals can take. In this regard, the WASTEIT project has the ambition to analyse household waste, with the understanding that it is at that level that crises in the food system are also reflected. WASTEIT wants to generate shared knowledge and nudge behavioural change contributing to a transition to more inclusive, fair, resilient and sustainable food systems.” Prof. Matteo Vittuari
Boulet, M., Hoek, A. C., & Raven, R. (2021). Towards a multi-level household food waste and consumer behaviour framework: Untangling spaghetti soup. Appetite, 156, 104856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104856
D. lgs. 155/2003, (2003). https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2003/07/01/003G0174/sg
D. lgs. 166/2016, (2016). https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2016/08/30/16G00179/sg
Eurostat. (2021). Inability to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day—EU-SILC survey. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database?node_code=ilc_mdes03
Eurostat. (2022). Food waste and food waste prevention—Estimates. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Food_waste_and_food_waste_prevention_-_estimates
Grant, F., & Rossi, L. (2022). The Italian Observatory on Food Surplus, Recovery, and Waste: The Development Process and Future Achievements. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.787982
Laaninen, T. (2020). Reducing food waste in the European Union. European Parliamentary Research Service.
Quested, T. E., Marsh, E., Stunell, D., & Parry, A. D. (2013). Spaghetti soup: The complex world of food waste behaviours. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 79, 43–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.04.011
Stenmarck, Å., Jensen, C., Quested, T., Moates, G., Buksti, M., Cseh, B., Juul, S., Parry, A., Politano, A., Redlingshofer, B., Scherhaufer, S., Silvennoinen, K., Soethoudt, H., Zübert, C., & Östergren, K. (2016). Estimates of European food waste levels. FUSIONS Reducing food waste through social innovation.
UN General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1).
UNEP. (2021). UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021. http://www.unep.org/resources/report/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021
WWI Observatory. (2023). Il ‘caso Italia’ 2023: Vale oltre 9 miliardi € lo spreco di cibo in Italia. La nuova indagine Waste Watcher racconta anche i consumi degli italiani. | Spreco Zero. https://www.sprecozero.it/. https://www.sprecozero.it/news/il-caso-italia-2023-vale-oltre-9-miliardi-e-lo-spreco-di-cibo-in-italia-la-nuova-indagine-waste-watcher-racconta-anche-i-consumi-degli-italiani/
Observatory waste watcher - Italy
Principal investigators
Referred to
Spoke 07In the fourth episode of *Food and Policies*, Maria Elide Vanutelli interviews Lucia Tecuta about her research on sustainable food choices and the psychological factors influencing them.
