Food waste survey 2023
Closed on
Decided on
Understanding more about food waste in order to help residents cut bills and reduce impact of food waste on the environment
Background
Hampshire County Council’s waste prevention initiative, Smart Living, encourages residents of Hampshire to cut their shopping bills, help the environment, and live more healthily by reducing the amount of usable food that they throw away.
Research objectives
The Waste Team wanted to understand more about:
- the frequency and drivers of food waste, including the types of foods thrown away
- perceived benefits of reducing food waste
- how people planned and prepared meals, including food shopping habits
- ways in which they stored and measured ingredients
- how they dealt with food leftovers
Approach
Two workshops were held in early 2023 to understand some of the key drivers of food waste and some of the barriers to reducing food waste. Following these, a survey was run to better understand the scope of the issues raised, as well as experiences and views on food waste. There were 3,169 responses to the online survey from members of the public in Hampshire.
Outcomes
A number of ways that the Waste Team could help the public to find out more about reducing food waste, plan meals, access recipes to use up food they have, and use leftovers from meals were identified, considering two types of food waste:
- Avoidable food waste (food that could have been used, such as leftovers, or food going bad)
- Unavoidable food waste (food that cannot easily be used again, such as egg shells or meat bones)
|
People who felt they produced both avoidable and unavoidable food waste (43%) |
People who felt they only produced unavoidable food waste (57%) |
Potential next steps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most likely to be |
Households with children Households on over £60k |
Single-person households Households on under £30k |
Focus resources on areas with families and higher incomes |
| Perceived main drivers of avoidable food waste | Food going bad too quickly Leftovers from meals Unplanned meals |
Buying too much food Leftovers from meals Unplanned meals |
Ensure that marketing on food waste reduction focuses more on reducing food spoilage than the over purchasing of food |
| Main perceived benefits of reducing food waste |
Reducing food bills |
Reducing food bills Helping healthier eating habits Helping the environment |
Focus food waste messaging on reducing food bills while also recognising the health and environmental benefits |
| How meals were typically planned and eaten |
Ate same meals with household Followed meal plans |
Ate same meals with household Followed meal plans |
Look for ways to encourage meal planning and for households to eat meals together more |
| Main ways to help reduce food waste from leftovers |
Info on how to reuse leftovers |
Info on how to reuse leftovers More fridge/freezer space Info on how to store leftovers |
Focus on information on how to reuse leftovers, and consider supporting with reusable food waste storage tools |
| Recipe sources typically used when cooking with ingredients |
Online tools Offline resources Self-created recipes |
Online tools Offline resources Self-created recipes |
Focus on publishing recipes through online channels such as web pages, social media, email distribution, or apps |
