The determinants of food waste behavior in young consumers in a developing country

Abstract

Purpose

Every year a huge amount of food is wasted from food production till its consumption. The activity of food wastage has become a daily routine practice and a huge portion of this loss is contributed by the consumers all around the world. With a total estimated population of 207.7m, 64 percent of the population of Pakistan is below the age of 30. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect young consumer’s food waste behavior in a developing country context.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected in the month of Ramadan and Eid primarily by means of a web-based questionnaire. A two-step approach of structural equation modeling was used as a data analysis technique.

Findings

The findings of this research confirm the hypothesis that environmental concern and time pressure influence the attitude toward food waste reduction. The results further reveal that although attitude and injunctive norms lead toward higher intentions to reduce food waste, moral norms and perceived behavioral control do not significantly impact this intent.

Practical implications

This study contributes toward understanding the behavior of consumers in order to ensure the provision and execution of food waste prevention campaigns. This study has implications for policy makers and decision makers, and other stakeholders responsible for food waste reduction and environmental protection. Besides, social campaigns can be developed based on the results of this study, so as to improve the habits related to food wastage in consumers. Finally, the findings are beneficial to academics and scholars that are presently working on factors related to consumer behavior toward food waste.

Originality/value

Food waste behavior in young consumers from developing countries in general and from Pakistan in particular has not been analyzed before. The present study aims at analyzing some of the important predecessors of food waste behavior and thus it significantly adds to the existing body of knowledge of consumer behavior toward food waste.

Citation

Bhatti, S.H., Saleem, F., Zakariya, R. and Ahmad, A. (2023), "The determinants of food waste behavior in young consumers in a developing country", British Food Journal, Vol. 125 No. 6, pp. 1953-1967. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2019-0450