Factors affecting food waste in college canteens

Abstract

The phenomenon of food waste in Chinese college canteens is very prominent. In order to reveal the key reasons for college students to waste food when dining in the cafeteria, this study used direct weighing method to conduct a large-scale survey of food waste in college cafeterias in 29 universities of 29 provinces. Based on the questionnaire survey of 9192 college students and from the perspectives of individual characteristics, family characteristics, dietary characteristics, information intervention, and regional characteristics, we explored factors that affect food waste behavior of college students. The study found that: (1) Up to 74% of college students have food waste, the weight of food wasted per person has reached 61.03 g/meal, and the average food waste rate per person per meal is 12.13%. (2) On the whole, women are more wasteful than men, and undergraduate students are more wasteful than postgraduates. Individuals who more often trend to waste have a worse food waste status. The better family economic situation, the more wasteful the individual is. The more weight of purchased food and the lower satisfaction with the taste of the food, the more wasteful the individual is. Compared with college students studying in northern universities, the food waste problem of college students in southern universities is more serious. (3) Further research found that some influencing factors of the food waste behavior of southern and northern students are different, but the significant correlation between gender, waste habits, family economic situation, weight of the portion, and satisfaction with the taste of the food, and wasteful behavior, for both southern and northern students is consistent with the overall sample. Therefore, we should pay attention to food waste generation in college and university canteens. According to the characteristics and patterns of college students’food waste behavior, some guiding measures should be issued to effectively reduce“waste on the tongue”.