The attributes of leftovers and higher-order personal values.

About this resource: The inter-relationships between people’s perceptions of the attributes of leftover food and higher-order values concerning food waste were investigated through a qualitative survey of 112 participants from a market research firm. Leftover foods were perceived as having both positive and negative attributes and benefits, including tasty food, dangerous food, food that looked like spoiling and used or second-hand food – leading to the consequences of time-saving (i.e. saves time on meal preparation), time to binning and repurposing (i.e. composting or animal feed). Participants’ perceived states of being were grouped into themes that encapsulated how they positioned themselves in terms of roles and actions reflecting their personal values. The data revealed three main themes: the responsible ones (i.e. taking actions that protect the health of the family or that limit food waste creation); the virtuous ones, (i.e. ensuring food waste is suitably disposed of via compost and as animal feed); and the blameless ones (i.e. that others are more to blame for food waste generation). Findings from this research may help support social marketing and communications campaigns aiming to reduce household food waste.

Food Waste Innovation Authors: Miranda Mirosa

Citation: Andrews, L., Kerr, G., Pearson, D. & Mirosa, M. (2018) The attributes of leftovers and higher-order personal values. British Food Journal, 120(9), 1965-1979.