An Empirical Comparison of Informational and Behavioral Food Waste Interventions in U.S. Households: The Advantage of Implementation Intentions

Abstract

Household food waste is a major source of economic loss and environmental impact, but it is unclear whether interventions can successfully reduce food waste. Thus, the current study evaluated two interventions designed to change food waste-related behaviors and reduce food waste in the context of U.S. households. We tested these interventions via an online study of 1494 households, wherein individuals were randomized to three informational conditions (a “save money” message, a “holistic” message, or a “control” message) and two behavioral conditions (set implementation intentions or do not set implementation intentions). The results showed that informational interventions had minimal impact on food waste-related behaviors, only reducing the degree to which households wasted food due to date labels. Conversely, the behavioral intervention had a stronger impact on food waste-related behaviors: households enacted higher levels of efficient food acquisition behaviors, less frequently wasted food due to date labels, and enacted more efficient leftover usage behaviors. However, although these behaviors are related to food waste, neither intervention significantly reduced household food waste. Therefore, whereas behavioral interventions appear to be more promising than informational interventions alone, it appears that household food waste reduction is a more challenging endeavor than previously thought. We discuss implications of our results and a number of future research directions.