Factors affecting food waste awareness in Turkey. The case of Çorum province

Abstract

Every year in the world, a significant amount of food is wasted at the consumption stage. Since food waste awareness is the determinant of food waste behaviours, the aim of this paper is to determine the effect of materialist values, personality, religious norm, food choice, food expenditure, recycling and environmental awareness on food waste awareness. Survey data were obtained from consumers in urban areas of Çorum in March, April and May 2019. Structural Equation Model was conducted to determine the factors affecting food waste awareness of consumers. According to the results of the path analysis, religious norms were influenced only by personality, while environmental awareness was influenced by food expenditure and recycling. Although recycling was positively affected by environmental awareness, food expenditure and food choice, it was negatively affected by materialist values. The most important way to reduce food waste is to raise environmental awareness. Consumers should be informed about the impact of recycling, food expenditures, materialistic values and food choice on the environment in order to increase environmental awareness of consumers.