An analysis of how persuasive communication cues can influence behavioural change to reduce food waste across the retail supply chain ecosystem

Abstract

Food waste has been agreed by various literature that it is a global issue that needs to be solved. However, there has not been a universal agreement of how food waste can be defined. According to Nahman and Lange (2012) definitions of food waste differ widely – as such for the purpose of this research we will be using their definition as it seeks to address a multitude of food wastage that occurs in the supply chain and opens it up to include other stakeholders. We undertook research to understand whether a multidisciplinary approach is ideal and to ensure that communication is a driver to effect behavioural change. Thus, we define food waste broadly to include losses that arise before food reaches the end-user (pre-consumer food losses), as well as food that is discarded by consumers (post-consumer food waste) Nahman and Lange (2012). The purpose of using this definition is to set context to the post-consumer wastage that occurs. This is wastage that occurs in households due to over buying and cooking, and the incorrect understanding of food packaging and general consumer perceptions to food waste.