Wasted food, poor health, sad planet: optimising householders' food behaviour for health outcomes, food security and resource efficiency

Approximately 70% of UK food wasted is from households, 60% is avoidable. Food poverty is increasing
and Brexit approaches likely rising food tariffs and prices. Scant evidence exists connecting food waste
and health outcomes. Food waste prevention research focuses on assessing composition. Elements
influencing food waste include purchasing decisions, meal planning, food storage, use of left overs,
adherence to sell by dates and portion control. This project aims to discover what drives these decisions
and behaviours and how to shift them towards food waste reduction, food security and better health
outcomes.
Methods: Ethical approval. Literature review.
Setting: Three purposively selected districts in Hampshire UK with diverse geographical spread and
demographics.
Recruitment: Random selection design.
Focus Groups: Semi-structure audio-record and transcribe verbatim. Develop coding frame using
constant comparative methods. Use narrative summaries of data to enable comparison with Transtheoretical
Model of behaviour change to test and refine emerging theories.
Modelling Study: Data - online invoices, till receipts and demographic survey. Collect at two time points
online. Query database for statistical analysis and modelling.
Food waste composition: Records of food waste.
Tool Output: Using collected data a tool will be co-developed with Hampshire County Council to model
household food security, waste and purchasing optimisation in a range of scenarios.
Contribution: Study will identify influences of food purchasing, handling and waste behaviours. Exploring
variation and connection with health and social inequalities. Highlighting focus on resource allocation to
reduce food waste, improve household food security and public health messaging and contribute to
evidence-based policy setting.