FACTORS INFLUENCING FOOD-WASTE BEHAVIORS AT UNIVERSITY CANTEENS IN BEIJING, CHINA: AN INVESTIGATION BASED ON THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Highlights

● Investigate the actual situation of food waste at university canteens in Beijing, China.

● Analyze the influential factors of student food-waste behavior in university canteens.

● Construct the theoretical model of the factors influencing food waste behavior based on the theory of planned behavior.

● Measure the path coefficients of psychological factors, individual characteristics, and dining factors to food waste behavior.

● Suggest some measures to reduce and prevent food waste at university canteens.

Abstract

Food waste is a major social problem that contributes to the overutilization of natural resources, affecting economic progress and environmental protection. Food waste occurs throughout the whole process of the food supply chain, especially during the consumption stage. As a special group of consumers, the emerging adults at university may have unique food consumption patterns and their food waste behavior in university canteens deserves more attention. To understand the influential factors of the food-waste behavior of students in university canteens, a field survey was conducted at China Agricultural University canteen with 705 respondents. Based on the theory of planned behavior, this paper examines the influencing factors of student food-waste behavior from three dimensions: sociopsychological factors, individual characteristics and dining factors. The results indicate that the percentage of students who waste food is relatively low, at roughly 27%. Perceived behavior control, gender, monthly living expenses, BMI, mealtime, meal expectations and food portion were significantly correlated with student food-waste behavior, among which perceived behavior control had the most prominent correlation, followed by food portion. Behavioral intention, household location and palatability were not significantly correlated with student food-waste behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to promote publicity and education on reducing food waste on campus, reinforce the administration of the department of support service, and optimize the food portion in the canteen.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

university students / food waste behavior / theory of planned behavior / university canteen

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Compliance with ethics guidelines

Hao Fan, Jingjing Wang, Xiaotong Lu, and Shenggen Fan declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2022. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)