Food Waste Solutions for Homes: Shopping, Storing, Serving – and Marketing

Abstract

Household food waste originates in three predictable stages – when shopping, storing, and serving. That is, food can be purchased and never prepared, prepared and never served, or served and never eaten. Building on behavioral economics insights, this framework focuses on why consumers waste food in these three stages and how marketers can help consumers reduce food waste and thereby help them get more value from their products by enjoying them more and wasting them less. For cost-conscious consumers, wasting less means saving more. For profit-conscious marketers, wasting less means making more profit.

Keywords: Food Waste, Household, Consumer, Behavioral Economics, Marketing, Interventions, Packaging