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walkitoutI’m trying to find source reduction approaches to reducing food waste that are tips and tricks oriented approaches to helping people _bring less food home_. (I just drove my daughter over to Tougas Farm where we picked 8 quarts of strawberries so I hope you can clearly see the hypocrisy here.)
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-canadian-study-finds-canadians-can-reduce-household-food-waste-by-a-third-with-just-one-use-up-day-per-week-866844575.html
This did not turn up with my search string; I found the underlying research, but it was paywalled, so I went looking for news coverage and found this. Basically, they had people keep a journal of food usages, and they assigned some interventions.
Obviously, keeping track — even in the control group — raised awareness and all by itself reduced waste. In addition, a group was encouraged to make a meal on a “Use Up Day”, where they used things they already had that were otherwise about to go bad. Also, they were given a “3+1” cooking approach, which I found mildly astonishing mostly because I was like, wait, people do it some other way?
“how to make a meal with what they could easily grab and use from their fridges and around their kitchen, combining a base, vegetable or fruit, optional protein and a 'magic touch' such as spices or sauce to bring the dish together and give it flavour”
I mean, repertoire gives you a way to do that in a “culinarily consistent” way, but honestly, it’s going to be fine regardless because it’ll be edible and not boring.
Finally, some were given flexipes: “flexible recipes with inspiration and ideas for using up commonly wasted ingredients following the 3+1 approach”.
This is pretty awesome!
I will go look for more.
ETA:
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/09/09/psychology-food-waste-interview-brian-roe-and-laura-moreno
Meanwhile, in the US, no concrete suggestions and a lot of stuff that we know does not work well. They do have some interesting ideas about how to better track what people are doing? (No, I am not impressed either.)
I actually wish they had interrogated the people-buy-stuff-on-sale problem. I mean, if the store was going to throw it out if it wasn’t sold, and someone brings it home, uses part of it and throws the rest away, that’s a win, right? But not presented as on. *sigh*
ETAYA:
This is great! Potlucks, family style, tapas, etc. leads to excessive per person consumption / waste.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0743915618823783
“This is shown to be the result of both generosity motives and cognitive errors (specifically, failing to account for the reciprocal nature of CC). However, inflated purchase amounts in CC contexts can be reduced (i.e., consumer well-being can be improved) by (1) having consumers explicitly focus on the amount they expect to take from others and (2) providing antiwaste persuasive messages at the point of purchase.”
When we were at LegoLand this time, we did several things that we did 9 months ago (practice effect). So when we went to Royal Feast for lunch, I explicitly underordered by one full meal (4 meals for five people). It worked out almost perfectly — I had remembered just how much extra food there had been last time and compensated. We stopped at a place for ice cream, but it turned out to be all sorbet. A. didn’t want any, and I took a look at the sizes of the containers and declined as well. I got tastes of three different flavors, and it cut the total waste down to less than half of one full serving. That “focus on the amount they expect to take from others” is huge, and it helps a lot of the person who is paying for most of it does that, because they are not going to feel as much of a need to be generous by supplying food, because they are already paying.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-canadian-study-finds-canadians-can-reduce-household-food-waste-by-a-third-with-just-one-use-up-day-per-week-866844575.html
This did not turn up with my search string; I found the underlying research, but it was paywalled, so I went looking for news coverage and found this. Basically, they had people keep a journal of food usages, and they assigned some interventions.
Obviously, keeping track — even in the control group — raised awareness and all by itself reduced waste. In addition, a group was encouraged to make a meal on a “Use Up Day”, where they used things they already had that were otherwise about to go bad. Also, they were given a “3+1” cooking approach, which I found mildly astonishing mostly because I was like, wait, people do it some other way?
“how to make a meal with what they could easily grab and use from their fridges and around their kitchen, combining a base, vegetable or fruit, optional protein and a 'magic touch' such as spices or sauce to bring the dish together and give it flavour”
I mean, repertoire gives you a way to do that in a “culinarily consistent” way, but honestly, it’s going to be fine regardless because it’ll be edible and not boring.
Finally, some were given flexipes: “flexible recipes with inspiration and ideas for using up commonly wasted ingredients following the 3+1 approach”.
This is pretty awesome!
I will go look for more.
ETA:
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/09/09/psychology-food-waste-interview-brian-roe-and-laura-moreno
Meanwhile, in the US, no concrete suggestions and a lot of stuff that we know does not work well. They do have some interesting ideas about how to better track what people are doing? (No, I am not impressed either.)
I actually wish they had interrogated the people-buy-stuff-on-sale problem. I mean, if the store was going to throw it out if it wasn’t sold, and someone brings it home, uses part of it and throws the rest away, that’s a win, right? But not presented as on. *sigh*
ETAYA:
This is great! Potlucks, family style, tapas, etc. leads to excessive per person consumption / waste.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0743915618823783
“This is shown to be the result of both generosity motives and cognitive errors (specifically, failing to account for the reciprocal nature of CC). However, inflated purchase amounts in CC contexts can be reduced (i.e., consumer well-being can be improved) by (1) having consumers explicitly focus on the amount they expect to take from others and (2) providing antiwaste persuasive messages at the point of purchase.”
When we were at LegoLand this time, we did several things that we did 9 months ago (practice effect). So when we went to Royal Feast for lunch, I explicitly underordered by one full meal (4 meals for five people). It worked out almost perfectly — I had remembered just how much extra food there had been last time and compensated. We stopped at a place for ice cream, but it turned out to be all sorbet. A. didn’t want any, and I took a look at the sizes of the containers and declined as well. I got tastes of three different flavors, and it cut the total waste down to less than half of one full serving. That “focus on the amount they expect to take from others” is huge, and it helps a lot of the person who is paying for most of it does that, because they are not going to feel as much of a need to be generous by supplying food, because they are already paying.