Consumers’ stance on food waste in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia

Abstract

This work focuses on the area of food waste from the subjective perspective of the consumers themselves. The key source of data is a questionnaire survey with a sample selection of 3,429 respondents from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, which are countries with historical and cultural ties. This survey was orchestrated in 2019 and it aimed to uncover the consumers’ stances on this area. For every country involved, the results proved that the most common reason for food waste is that the food spoils when stored. One’s stance on food waste is influenced by identifiers such as age, education, economic activity, and perceived income. A significant difference between the surveyed countries can be seen in the fact that Poles have over a 10× greater chance of wasting the smallest amount of food. Descriptive statistics, contingency analysis, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. It is evident that subsequent research is necessary in this area, ideally with a united methodology for every country in the European Union.