There appears to be a heightened sense of awareness when it comes to food waste nowadays, with just over 4 in 10 (42%) adults claiming the amount of food they are throwing out has decreased compared to this time last year.
Recent research on behalf of Retail Intelligence by Empathy Research, amongst a nationally representative sample of 1,044 adults aged 18+, sought to understand how this heightened sense of awareness in relation to food waste has affected purchase behaviour and what changes have been made to food consumption overall.
Coupled with this decrease in the amount of food being thrown out, there are over 8 in 10 (83%) adults who claim they have become more conscious of trying to cut back on the amount of food they have to throw out nowadays. Females (87%) are more conscious of trying to reduce their food waste, with those aged 18-24 (78%) least so.
In order to try and alleviate food waste, there are several steps which have been taken, with half (50%) of adults claiming they have stopped buying particular types of food because they are the type of foods which always end up being thrown out. Females (57%) and those aged 25-34 (59%) are most likely to have stopped buying particular types of food to try and reduce overall waste.
Apart from the outright cessation in purchase of particular foods in order to reduce food waste, there are several other behaviours evident. Almost half (46%) of those who have become more conscious of reducing their food waste claim they are paying closer attention to ‘best before’ and ‘sell by’ dates when purchasing food.
Some 4 in 10 (40%) claim they put more fresh food in the freezer with just over a third (34%) claiming to buy fresh food more often but in smaller quantities in order to try and stop it going off, while almost a quarter (24%) claim they have reduced the amount of fresh food they purchase in general.
For further information and more in-depth analysis in relation to consumer behaviour when it comes to food waste, please contact Robbie Clarke at Empathy Research: [email protected]
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