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Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

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Evaluating Consumer Food Waste Reduction Interventions

 Click on PRESENTATION SLIDES BELOW by each speaker and HERE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE WEBINAR VIDEO. 

2:35

Reduce Food Waste, Save Money: Testing a Novel Intervention to Reduce Household Food Waste, Presenter: Paul van der Werf, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Western University. PRESENTATION SLIDES. Organizer Synopsis: A rigorous evaluation of an intervention to reduce household food waste in London, Ontario.

2:50

Food Waste Reduction: A Test of Three Consumer Awareness Interventions, Presenter: Virginia Maclaren, Dept. Geography & Planning, U. Toronto.
Organizer Synopsis: A rigorous evaluation of several household food waste reduction interventions, including an education intervention leveraging gamification.

3:05

Estimating Consumer-Level Food Loss Ratios Using Purchase and Consumption Data, Presenter: Mary Muth, Director, Food, Nutrition, & Obesity Policy Research, RTI Int.  PRESENTATION SLIDESOrganizer Synopsis: Explores methods to construct the best food waste estimates out of existing USDA data sets that were not designed to measure food waste. 

3:20

Healthy Planet, Healthy Youth: A Food Systems Education and Promotion Intervention to Improve Adolescent Diet Quality and Reduce Food Waste

Presenter: Melissa Pflugh Prescott, Dept. of Food Science & Human Nutrition, U. Illinois, Organizer Synopsis: A rigorous evaluation of a well-constructed, multi-phase, school-based intervention that targets both food waste and improved nutrition.

3:35

Impact of Plate Shape and Size on Individual Food Waste in a University Dining Hall setting, Presenter: Brenna Ellison, Dept. of Agr. & Consumer Economics, U. Illinois. PRESENTATION SLIDES.
Organizer Synopsis: An assessment of whether switching to oval plates can provide another nudge to reduce plate waste in food service settings.

3:50

The Effect of Sell-by Dates on Purchase Volume and Food Waste, Presenter: Yang Yu, Dept. of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology, Penn State.PRESENTATION SLIDES.
Organizer Synopsis: The authors’ analysis leverages a date-labeling policy change in New York City to reveal the power of the package date on the amount of milk that is wasted by households.

4:05

The Likely Effects of Standardized Date Labeling, Presenter: Brian Roe, Dept. of Agr., Env. & Development Economics, Ohio State University. PRESENTATION SLIDES.
Organizer Synopsis: An assessment of how changing date label phrases affected intended discard of a range of foods during in-lab and online product evaluations.

Reduce Food Waste, Save Money: Testing a Novel Intervention to Reduce Household Food Waste, Presenter: Paul van der Werf, AET Group Inc. and Western University.
Organizer Synopsis: A rigorous evaluation of an intervention to reduce household food waste in London, Ontario.

AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT: An intervention, which used elements of the theory of planned behavior, was developed and tested in a randomized control trial (RCT) involving households in the city of London, Ontario, Canada. A bespoke methodology involving the direct collection and measurement of food waste within curbside garbage samples of control (n = 58) and treatment households (n = 54) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. A comparison of garbage samples before and after the intervention revealed that total food waste in treatment households decreased by 31% after the intervention and the decrease was significantly greater (p = .02) than for control households. Similarly, avoidable food waste decreased by 30% in treatment households and was also significantly greater (p = .05) than for control households. Key determinants of treatment household avoidable food waste reduction included personal attitudes, perceived behavioral control, the number of people in a household, and the amount of garbage set out.  Co-authors: Jamie A. Seabrook and Jason A. Gilliland.

Food Waste Reduction: A Test of Three Consumer Awareness Interventions, Presenter: Virginia Maclaren, Dept. Geography & Planning, U. Toronto. 
Organizer Synopsis: A rigorous evaluation of several household food waste reduction interventions, including an intervention leveraging gamification to improve food waste reduction knowledge.

AUTHOR ABSTRACT: One approach to reducing household food waste is through education campaigns. We recruited 501 households divided into three types of intervention groups and compared with a control group to better understand the efficacy of diverse education campaign approaches. Food waste interventions included a passive approach (handouts), a community engagement approach, and a gamification approach. We conducted waste audits, household surveys (pre- and post-intervention), and a focus group at the end of the campaign. The passive and gamification groups had similarly high levels of participation, while participation in the community group was very low. The passive group and the gamification group had higher self-reported awareness of food wasting after the campaign and lower food wastage than the control group. Waste audits found marginally significant differences between the game group and the control (p = 0.07) and no difference between the other campaign groups and the control group in edible food wasted. Frequent gamers were found to generate less edible food waste than infrequent gamers. We conclude that the evidence about the potential for gamification as an effective education change tool is promising and we recommend further study. Co-authors: Tammara Soma & Belinda Li.

Estimating Consumer-Level Food Loss Ratios Using Purchase and Consumption Data, Presenter: Mary Muth, Director, Food, Nutrition, and Obesity Policy Research, RTI International. Organizer Synopsis: An exploration of methods to construct the best possible food waste estimates out of existing USDA data sets that were not designed to measure food waste.

AUTHOR ABSTRACT: USDA’s Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) Data System provides estimates of food loss and waste for 215 commodities and is the leading source of food loss and waste estimates in the United States. The consumer-level loss ratios were recently re-estimated using updated data. The methodology is based on calculating the difference between national-level purchase estimates using the USDA’s Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) for 2011–2012 and national-level consumption estimates using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dietary recall data for foods directly consumed and used as ingredients. This presentation will provide an overview of the approach, its strengths and limitations, and anticipated application of the estimates.

Healthy Planet, Healthy Youth: A Food Systems Education and Promotion Intervention to Improve Adolescent Diet Quality and Reduce Food Waste, Presenter: Melissa Pflugh Prescott, Dept. of Food Science & Human Nutrition, U. Illinois.
Organizer Synopsis: Among the few studies that conducts a valid evaluation of a well-constructed, multi-phase, school-based intervention that targets both food waste and improved nutrition.

AUTHOR’S ABSTRACT: Emerging evidence suggests a link between young people’s interest in alternative food production practices and dietary quality. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a student-driven sustainable food systems education and promotion intervention on adolescent school lunch selection, consumption, and waste behaviors. Sixth grade science teachers at two middle schools (n = 268 students) implemented a standards-based curriculum on sustainable food systems, addressing the environmental impacts of food choices and food waste. The cumulating curriculum activity required the 6th grade students to share their food systems knowledge with their 7th and 8th grade counterparts (n = 426) through a cafeteria promotional campaign to discourage food waste. School-wide monthly plate waste assessments were used to evaluate changes in vegetable consumption and overall plate waste using a previously validated digital photography method. At baseline, the intervention students consumed significantly less vegetables relative to the control group (47.1% and 71.8% of vegetables selected, respectively (p = 0.006). This disparity was eliminated after the intervention with the intervention group consuming 69.4% and the control consuming 68.1% of selected vegetables (p = 0.848). At five months follow up, the intervention group wasted significantly less salad bar vegetables compared to the control group (24.2 g and 50.1 g respectively (p = 0.029). These findings suggest that food systems education can be used to promote improved dietary behaviors among adolescent youth.  Co-authors: Xanna Burg, Jessica Jarick Metcalfe, Alexander E. Lipka, Cameron Herritt and Leslie Cunningham-Sabo.

Impact of plate shape and size on individual food waste in a university dining hall setting, Presenter: Brenna Ellison, Dept. of Agricultural & Consumer Economics, U. Illinois.
Organizer Synopsis: An assessment of whether switching to oval plates can provide another nudge to reduce plate waste in food service settings.

The Effect of Sell-by Dates on Purchase Volume and Food Waste, Presenter: Yang Yu, Dept. of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology, Penn State. 
Organizer Synopsis: The authors’ analysis leverages a date-labeling policy change in New York City to reveal the power of the package date on the amount of milk that is wasted by households.

AUTHOR ABSTRACT: This article constructs a theoretical model of rational food waste and analyzes how an extension of a food product's sell-by date affect a household's decisions of purchase volume and food waste. We then use the elimination of New York City's regulation of sell-by dates for pasteurized milk products as an empirical case, and examine whether the city’s new policy effectively reduces food waste and improves consumer welfare. Our results suggest that the new policy reduces purchase volume by about 10%. Both theoretically and empirically, we show that while the observed quantity declines, the actual consumption of milk increases, implying a reduction in food waste by more than 10%. Furthermore, we prove that this consumer welfare-improving pattern is generalizable to all types of perishable food with price-inelastic demand. Co-author: Ted Jaenicke.

The Likely Effects of Standardized Date Labeling, Presenter: Brian Roe, Dept. of Agr., Environmental & Development Economics, Ohio State U.
Organizer Synopsis: An assessment of how changing date label phrases affected consumers intended discard of a range of foods during in-lab and online product evaluations. Co-authors: Kathryn Bender, Danyi Qi, Aishwarya Badiger, Chris Simons & Dennis Heldman.