EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub

Consumer food waste at the household level results from a complex set of behaviours. These are influenced by psychological, sociocultural and economic factors such as awareness, attitudes, knowledge, emotions and context-related factors such as available technologies, referred to in this report as ‘drivers’. Opportunities to reduce food waste systematically and practically, referred to in this report as ‘levers’, are distinct from drivers but have rarely been documented in previous studies. The identification of drivers and levers helps in designing effective interventions to tackle consumer food waste. The report aims to review drivers, levers and interventions relating to consumer food waste and to identify potential interventions to stimulate behavioural change. To achieve a systematic overview of food waste drivers and levers, this study builds upon (i) a systematic literature review conducted on scientific and grey literature published between 2010 and 2021, (ii) a revised version of the motivation– opportunity–ability framework distinguishing between micro, meso and macro situational factors and (iii) an iterative feedback mechanism enabling consultation with the experts of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum, which was established by the European Commission in 2021. Drivers and levers of consumer food waste are identified, categorised, analysed and discussed in relation to the revised motivation–opportunity–ability framework. This review suggests that further research is needed to understand household food waste better, to develop more evidence-based interventions and to devise standardised methods to measure their impacts.