The following three chapters related to behavior are open source.
Introduction: A Framework for Managing Food Waste
Närvänen, Mesiranta, Mattila and Heikkinen present a much-needed framework for managing food waste, including food surplus, food loss and food waste. The framework discusses the characteristics of food waste as unstructured, cross-cutting and relentless, that is, as a wicked problem. The chapter provides a concise review of recent food waste studies, particularly from the perspective of finding solutions. Närvänen et al. introduce four perspectives into this solution orientation-changing the behaviour of actors, connecting actors and activities within systems, constituting sociocultural meanings and innovating solutions to food waste reduction. These four perspectives also form the structure for the rest of the book, which provides research-based multidisciplinary insights and solutions in the quest to battle against the wicked problem of food waste.
Household Food Waste: How to Avoid It? An Integrative
Review
Behavioural change interventions directed at consumers have a great potential to reduce overall food waste levels. Van Geffen, van Herpen and van Trijp provide an overview of the literature on drivers of in-home food waste and translate them into guidelines for effective intervention development. They make a clear distinction between interventions that encourage goal setting to reduce food waste and interventions that encourage goal striving, to allow for the best intervention selection. They argue that consumers are best served by interventions that enable alignment between multiple food-related goals with food waste prevention, as this normative goal is difficult to act upon when hedonic and gain goals are also activated.
From Measurement to Management: Food Waste in the Finnish Food Chain
Hartikainen, Riipi, Katajajuuri and Silvennoinen present a quality standard for food waste quantification in Finland where the previous food waste studies provide knowledge of the most suitable quantification methods. The standard describes the best methods for each part of the food chain. For instance, questionnaires are appropriate to collect waste data from primary production and manufacturing, whereas concentrated data collection is suitable for retail. To make data collection consistent, it is also important to collaborate and discuss common definitions between the actors of the food chain. Additionally, the aim is to establish a food waste road map where the Finnish food chain actors set targets and agree on the best practices to reduce food waste. |
