ABSTRACT
The largest share of food loss and waste in North America comes at the hands of the individual and household-level consumers. Understanding the factors that lead to such consumer food waste is therefore paramount to solving, or at least mitigating, the problem. We suggest major relevant marketing (labelling, packaging) and environmental (tablescape, consumer identity) categories that are known to determine consumers’ food decisions and behaviours. Within each, we review the literature and suggest potential marketing and environmental cues and situations that serve to knowingly, or unknowingly, increase a consumer’s wasted foods. We conclude by highlighting the gaps in our knowledge of consumer food waste behaviour that future research can and should help address, from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
