Assessing Households' Food Waste in Rural Yogyakarta

Abstract

As consumers have been widely recognized as one of the largest driving forces in food waste, then knowledge about households' food consumption related to food waste behaviour is essential to understand. This study aims to identify the level of food waste based on the food categories and quantify the amount of food waste generated by rural households, particularly rice. Data were collected using a questionnaire conducted on a sample of 122 households which were selected randomly from 3 rural areas in Sleman and Bantul regencies. The first finding indicates rice and vegetables as the predominant types of food being wasted by households. The second finding (133 gr per household per day) provides a measure of the average amount of waste associated with the consumption of rice as households' staple food. This study gives further insights linked with the households' food consumption and the amount of food waste generated, which have previously been rarely studied, especially in rural areas.