TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on household food waste behavior in Japan
AU - Qian, Kun
AU - Javadi, Firouzeh
AU - Hiramatsu, Michikazu
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Lotte Research Promotion Grant and JSPS KAKENHI (grant numbers JP17H06342, JP20K03479, JP20KK0054) to K.Q., and by an education and research budget of the Institute of Decision Science for a Sustainability Society, Kyushu University for all authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had various influences on people’s ordinary lives, including their thoughts and behaviors related to food consumption. Food waste has been cited as a serious issue with environmental, social, and economic consequences. In this study, we investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic altered the social consciousness and behavior related to food waste in Japan. We conducted a nationwide online-based survey and collected a crosssectional dataset from 1959 adult respondents. The results showed that people in regions highly impacted by the pandemic reported a clearer understanding of the situation of their household food waste, more careful food preparation and purchasing, and were more strongly influenced to change their behaviors due to COVID-19. Further analyses revealed that thoughts and behaviors related to food waste significantly differed by sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, household size, and employment status. This study also implied that the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged some improvements in peoples’ behaviors and thoughts with regard to food, such as paying attention to food waste, making efforts to reduce food waste, and attempting cooking by themselves at home.
AB - The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had various influences on people’s ordinary lives, including their thoughts and behaviors related to food consumption. Food waste has been cited as a serious issue with environmental, social, and economic consequences. In this study, we investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic altered the social consciousness and behavior related to food waste in Japan. We conducted a nationwide online-based survey and collected a crosssectional dataset from 1959 adult respondents. The results showed that people in regions highly impacted by the pandemic reported a clearer understanding of the situation of their household food waste, more careful food preparation and purchasing, and were more strongly influenced to change their behaviors due to COVID-19. Further analyses revealed that thoughts and behaviors related to food waste significantly differed by sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, household size, and employment status. This study also implied that the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged some improvements in peoples’ behaviors and thoughts with regard to food, such as paying attention to food waste, making efforts to reduce food waste, and attempting cooking by themselves at home.
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U2 - 10.3390/su12239942
DO - 10.3390/su12239942
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096824671
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 23
M1 - 9942
ER -
