Spilling the beans on food waste: Understanding and reducing household food waste by using the motivation, opportunity and ability framework

This thesis investigates both individual as well as contextual influences of household food waste within its web of food-related goals. This thesis shows that the Motivation Opportunity and Ability -framework is a useful framework to both understand and reduce household food waste. It can explain household food management behaviours and subsequently household food waste reasonably well and leads to new insights regarding intervention development. More concretely, it shows that having a busy lifestyle, the skill to plan accurately and attitude towards food waste are important determinants. In addition, the importance that people ascribe to having enough and tasty food influences how food is handled and waste amounts. Further, this thesis shows that people are only willing to change their food management behaviours when they feel their other food-related goals are not jeopardized and that effective interventions should contain more than only motivational elements. This thesis hopes to inspire scholars and practitioners to view the issue of household food waste more holistically.