The dark side of convenience: how to reduce food waste induced by food delivery apps

Abstract

Purpose

Food delivery apps (FDAs) have altered people's eating behaviour. The convenience of FDAs may cause consumers to order more food than people's level of hunger warrants, leading to food waste. Food waste is a grave societal problem, which, the authors argue, represents the dark side of FDAs. However, the tendency of consumers to order more food than required, or to engage in food over-ordering behaviour, has remained under-explored in the context of FDAs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study addresses the gap by examining the antecedents of over-ordering behaviour on FDAs through the theoretical lens of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), which past studies on food waste have also used.

Findings

The authors' results confirm the positive association of attitude, subjective norms and leftover reuse intentions with over-ordering behaviour. The moderation effect of age and gender on the relationship between subjective norms with over-ordering is also confirmed.

Originality/value

The study extends classic TPB propositions by incorporating trust and leftover reuse intentions as antecedents and age and gender as moderation variables. The study thus offers useful inferences for theory and practice.

Citation

Talwar, S., Kaur, P., Ahmed, U., Bilgihan, A. and Dhir, A. (2023), "The dark side of convenience: how to reduce food waste induced by food delivery apps", British Food Journal, Vol. 125 No. 1, pp. 205-225. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2021-0204