Finding Alternatives to Reduce Food Waste: An Experimental Study on Food Consumers

This study investigated effective methods for reducing food waste. We designed an experiment to present four types of treatments aimed at reducing food waste and estimated potential effects. We suggested a relevant policy to control food waste in restaurants by discouraging consumers from ordering more food than required. A total of 1,000 consumers participated in the experimental surveys in South Korea; they were divided into groups of 200 each for one control group and four treatment groups: education, nudge, incentive for fewer side dishes, and penalty for more side dishes. Statistical analysis revealed that while education was effective in preventing consumers from choosing more side dishes than necessary, nudges were initially ineffective, but could be cost-effective with careful design. The results indicated that both the incentive and penalty interventions effectively prevented consumers from choosing more side dishes, with partial evidence that penalty is more effective only when individuals have the option to choose all side dishes or none.