Linking household food management practices and food waste: Evidence from Latvian households

Abstract

Food waste prevention is incentivised at the EU policy level, yet household-level implementation remains uneven, and the role of everyday food management in food wasting behaviour is insufficiently understood. This study analyses data from a nationally representative sample of Latvia. In this study, full meal manager, partial meal manager and meal enjoyer roles were inductively formed based on respondent involvement in planning, purchasing and preparing food. A substantial share of respondents reported generating no food waste (18.6%) or never discarding edible food (30.5%), while economic savings emerged as the dominant motivation for preventing waste. Associations between food management role and awareness, attitude, motivation, self-reported actions, and supported measures for food waste prevention were examined using Pearson’s chi-square test of independence. Full meal managers were more likely to report concern about throwing out food and to practice preventive actions, such as checking household stocks and planning meals. In contrast, meal enjoyers more frequently reported not feeling bad about wasting food, selecting “nothing” as a motivation, and not carrying out specific prevention actions. These patterns suggest that detachment from food planning and preparation is associated with lower awareness of food waste and reduced engagement in prevention. Across all roles, respondents expressed uncertainty about measures that could support food waste prevention, indicating limited perceived relevance of measures at the household level. Overall, the findings demonstrate that food management roles exhibit detectable but modest differences for understanding household food wasting behaviour and for designing targeted and practically relevant prevention strategies. Aligning policy incentives with the realities of how food is managed in everyday life may enhance the effectiveness of food waste prevention incentives.