Preliminary Insights on Household Food Wastage in Lebanon

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3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Food Purchase Behavior and Household Food Expenditure Estimation

The respondents were asked where they purchase their food items (Figure 1), and the majority (64%) declared that their food purchase is mostly in hypermarkets/supermarkets. Only 29% buy their food from specific small markets such as butcheries, dairies and bakeries, and just 1% buys directly from the farmer or at farm. In Lebanon, more than half of the population is living in the city and this high urbanization resulted in keeping the Lebanese far from the rural area. This high number of citizens concentrated in a small area makes the hypermarkets and supermarkets grow in quantity. Sometimes many supermarkets are very near to each other and thus increase the competition for better prices.

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Figure 1. Place of Food Purchase

This high percentage of Lebanese that prefer buying from supermarkets may explain the fact that 55% said they purchase food once or twice a week, since once in hypermarket/supermarket consumers purchase not on a daily basis but what is needed (or not) for the whole week. This is one of the reasons for increasing food waste at household level. Only 10% mentioned they buy food every day and 20% once every two days.

Supermarkets and hypermarkets have marketing strategies to attract consumers and increase their purchase. One of these strategies is the special offer (buy 2 get one free, buy 2 and get 30% off, etc.) and according to the Lebanese respondents, 43% of them are attracted to such offers while 45% are sometimes attracted. This strategy may play a key role in increasing food waste since a higher quantity is purchased even if it is not needed.

Respondents were asked about how much they spend on food purchased in a month. More than half of the respondents (53%) spend more than 300 US$ on food purchased in a month, which is about more than third of the minimum salary in Lebanon. While about 25% of respondents spend between 200 and 300 US$ and 13% between 100 and 200 US$.

Not preparing a list of food products needed before shopping is considered to be one of the main reasons of household food waste. However, the results of this survey showed that 41% of the respondents prepare a list before buying the products and 16% do not use it.

Regarding the attitude of participants towards food waste, a high percentage of participants discard uneaten food in garbage bins (50%), whereas around 30% of participants feed uneaten food to animals. 15% of participants donate uneaten food for people in need, and 5% use uneaten food for compost production.

3.2. Knowledge of Food Labeling Information

Consumers’ poor understanding of complex and conservative “use by” and “best before” dates labelling may encourage food waste at home. This behaviour is made largely by the confusing system that some countries adopted for the expiration date of the products. Many studies have called the attention to inconsistencies that exists in the labelling of products, which cause many products to be discarded for this reason. The European Commission wants to help consumers reducing food waste by making “best before” and “use by” dates clearer on the packaging ^[14].

To investigate knowledge about food labels, respondents were asked what is meant by “use by” dates. About 84% of respondents correctly understood that food must be eaten or thrown away by this date, while just 13% of the respondents incorrectly said that “use by” date means that foods are still safe to eat after this date as long as they are not damaged.

Regarding the label “best before”, only 24% of the respondents correctly identified that food is still safe to eat after the “best before” date as long as it is not damaged or deteriorated, while a very high number (74%) answered wrong and said that food must be thrown away by this date. That means there is still some confusion surrounding the definitions of the labels.

Various studies in the USA ^[15], Europe ^[16], the United Kingdom ^[17] and Spain ^[18] have underlined that food date labelling, and confusion about it, are a major indirect cause of food loss and waste at retail and consumer levels, as consumers tend to assume that dates are linked to food safety when they are in reality more often grounded on food quality.

3.3. Extent of Household Food Waste

Using a five-point scale from “much more than you should” to “none”, respondents were asked how much uneaten food was thrown away in their household.

The amount of general uneaten food thrown out by respondents’ households was not perceived to be particularly excessive; 49% indicated they throw out “very little” and 30% indicated they threw out “a reasonable amount”. Only 5% of respondents indicated they threw out “more food than they should”. Additionally, 15% reported that they don’t throw out food at all (Figure 2).

In a survey on food waste conducted in New South Wales (Australia) 52% of the respondents indicated that they throw out “a reasonable amount” and 16% threw away “more” or “much more” than they should, and 9% reported they throw out no food at all ^[12].

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Figure 2. Quantity of Uneaten Food Thrown Away

Throwing away leftovers or the food remaining in the plates is considered as food waste. Generally speaking, leftovers present the highest food thrown away. About 62% of the respondents declare to throw leftovers less than once a week, while 7% throw them away more than twice a week and just 9% of the respondents mentioned that they do not throw leftovers.

There are many solutions regarding what to do with the leftovers. What is left from the dishes can be transformed into compost, can be conserved well in the fridge in order to be eaten the second day, or can be given to animals.

Table 2. Estimated quantity (in %) of purchased commodities thrown away

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Regarding the estimated quantity of purchased food that gets thrown away by the consumers, the majority of the respondents (more than a half) declared that they waste less than 2% of the total food purchased (Table 2) except for fruits, vegetables, and milk and dairy products.

At global level, most wasted food categories in households are fruits and vegetables (39%) followed by cereals (33%) ^[1].

Respondents were asked about the reasons behind throwing away food at their household (Table 3). About 54% said they throw food because it does not have a good smell or taste, while 36% throw it because it is left for too long time in the fridge, thus consumers should know well how to conserve food in the fridge since bad conservation is one of the major reasons of household food waste. About 41% said that food is thrown after discovering that is expired. Consumers should control the food label data and sometimes even if the food product data is expired, food product is still consumable and for this consumer have to taste or smell it before deciding whether throwing it or consuming it. Few respondents mentioned that the reasons behind throwing food are lack of cooking skills and that product package was not proper (3% and 2%, respectively).

Table 3. Reasons for Household Food Wastage (more than 1 item has been selected)

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3.4. Economic Value of Household Food Waste

Regarding the quantity of food thrown away, about 58% of the respondents mentioned that they do not throw away food that is still consumable (Figure 3). Around 18.6% throw less than 250 grams (g) of food in a week and 23 % throw more than 250 g per week.

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Figure 3. Quantity of Consumable Household Food Disposed in a week

Regarding the economic value of food waste at household level (Figure 4), 54% of the respondents mentioned that it is between 6 and 20 US$. About 20% said that the value is less than 5 US$ while 7% declared to throw food at a value higher than 51 US$ per month.

Food waste has an economic implication for producers and consumers as well. Food loss and waste represent a wasted investment that can reduce farmers’ incomes and increase consumers’ expenses ^[19] as food losses during harvest and in storage translate into lost income for farmers and into higher food prices for consumers ^[20]. Food loss and waste imply that consumers are paying a higher price for food due to inefficiency and/or inequity of the food system as a whole. In general, with a reduction in food losses and waste, the overall food supply would increase, which would drive down food prices and benefit consumers.

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Figure 4. Economic Value of Monthly Household Food Wastage

3.5. Willingness and Information Needs to Reduce Food Waste

Respondents were asked what information they need in order to reduce food waste (Table 4), 43% said that they would reduce food waste if they were better informed about the negative impacts of food waste on the environment and if they are informed about organizations and initiatives that deal with food waste. About 37% said that they would reduce food waste if the food product packaging was more suitable, and they know some recipes made with leftovers. Regarding the food labels that create confusion among consumers, only 25% mentioned that food waste could be reduced if these labels were clearer.

A practical solution for food waste reduction in Lebanon is the introduction of a waste minimization strategy whereby concerned organizations should conduct awareness campaigns to inform the public of the negative impacts of food wastage, take initiatives dealing with food wastage reduction such as improving product packaging and clarity of labels, and disseminate recipes to make use of leftovers. As a result, the community’s consumption behavior will vary, whereby food bills will be reduced causing a decrease in food waste generation ^[21].

The lack of studies related to food waste and loss in Lebanon was a limitation regarding the comparison of the results obtained from this survey with results of different studies. Usually, results obtained from a survey should be compared to studies conducted in countries having similar living conditions. Hence, a study related to Food Consumption and Waste conducted in Kuwait in 2012 ^[22] was used for comparing the results obtained from this survey. The results were also compared to an online survey conducted on food waste worldwide in March 2012 by the FAO’s Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition ^[23].This study focused mainly on the types of food items consumed by the participants.

Table 4. Information needs for reducing food waste (more than 1 item has been selected)

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