رفتار مصرف کنندگان در مورد پیشگیری از اتلاف مواد غذایی Consumers’ Behavior Regarding Food Waste Prevention

Introduction The generation of food waste is a global environmental, financial and social challenge. In the early 2010s the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimated that approximately one-third of food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted through the food supply chain (FSC), from agricultural production and post-harvest handling and storage to processing, transportation, distribution and consumption (Gustavsson et al., 2011). Food wastage is generated in every sector of the FSC, namely agriculture, processing, wholesales-retails, households and food services. However, the contribution of each FSC sector to food wastage differs substantially due to a range of reasons dependent on the socio-economic conditions of each country (European Commission, 2010; FAO, 2013). Food wastage is defined as the sum of food losses (wastage that is generated in the harvest and immediate post-harvest stages of the FSC) plus food waste (wastage that is generated in the retail and consumer stages of the FSC). Moreover, the distinction between food losses and food waste has a clear geographical distribution: food losses are higher in the developing countries, while food waste of perishable foods is dominant in the industrialised and developed economies (Parfitt et al., 2010). Food waste generation in the consumers’ households is the result of the dynamic interaction among retail, food services and the consumers. Food wastage places a heavy economic burden on all the players in the FSC. Food waste is definitely a financial loss for consumers; it is also a loss for retailers, when it takes place within the boundaries of their operation; and finally, food waste is a loss for the waste management system, which has to manage food waste, safely and effectively. Food waste generation causes also a heavy environmental burden for the whole planet. When edible food is wasted all the resources and energy required, in addition to the emissions of all kinds of pollutants generated, for its production, processing, transportation, cooking and delivery are ending up as waste. It is estimated that the global food sector accounts for around 30% of the world’s total energy consumption and around 22% of total Greenhouse Gas emissions (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). And finally, food wastage is a global social problem. The United Nations estimate that 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food is wasted every year while in the same time almost 1 billion people go undernourished and another 1 billion hungry (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). For all the aforementioned reasons, United Nations included food waste prevention among the sustainable development Goal 12 (“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”) targets aiming at halving by 2030, the per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals).