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Peer-reviewedCC BYFuture Foods

Motivated to reduce food waste, unsure how: A qualitative study of household food waste behaviour

  • Ylva Ran1
  • Fiona Lambe2
  • Runa Halvarsson3
  • Alexandra Fransson4
  • Christopher Malefors3
4 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 7032, Uppsala, SE-75007, Sweden; Corresponding author.
  2. 2Stockholm Environment Institute, Virkesvägen 1a, Stockholm, 12030, Sweden
  3. 3Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 7032, Uppsala, SE-75007, Sweden
  4. 4Stockholm Environment Institute, Virkesvägen 1a, Stockholm, 12030, Sweden; Division of Industrial Design, Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, Box 118, Lund, 22100, Sweden
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Abstract

Food waste contributes significant environmental impact and reducing household food waste remains a key priority. Yet, complexity of behaviours involved in household food waste remains understudied. This study aims to understand barriers and drivers of households’ capability, opportunity and motivation to reduce food waste, in order to contribute to better and more targeted policy interventions. We use a combined inductive-deductive thematic analysis approach, drawing on two theoretical frameworks, the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavioural model (COM-B) with the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to analyse semi-structured interview data of 30 Swedish households. Findings suggest that all households report to actively engage in behaviours to reduce food waste; these can be everything from a shared grocery list or taking care of leftovers. However, households report barriers in particular related to capability, such as knowing what is needed to further reduce food waste and understanding the consequences of food waste reduction, and to opportunity, including social influences to reduce food waste and environmental resources and context, for example, time constraints amid the many other demands of everyday life. This implies that policy interventions for reducing household food waste should help them to overcome barriers of time constraints, provide them with social influences within and outside the household, and strengthen their behavioural regulation

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{ran2026motivated,
  title = {{Motivated to reduce food waste, unsure how: A qualitative study of household food waste behaviour}},
  author = {Ylva Ran and Fiona Lambe and Runa Halvarsson and Alexandra Fransson and Christopher Malefors},
  journal = {Future Foods},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1016/j.fufo.2026.101222},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fufo.2026.101222},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Motivated to reduce food waste, unsure how: A qualitative study of household food waste behaviour
AU  - Ylva Ran
AU  - Fiona Lambe
AU  - Runa Halvarsson
AU  - Alexandra Fransson
AU  - Christopher Malefors
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/30
JO  - Future Foods
DO  - 10.1016/j.fufo.2026.101222
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fufo.2026.101222
AB  - Food waste contributes significant environmental impact and reducing household food waste remains a key priority. Yet, complexity of behaviours involved in household food waste remains understudied. This study aims to understand barriers and drivers of households’ capability, opportunity and motivation to reduce food waste, in order to contribute to better and more targeted policy interventions. We use a combined inductive-deductive thematic analysis approach, drawing on two theoretical frameworks, the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavioural model (COM-B) with the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to analyse semi-structured interview data of 30 Swedish households. Findings suggest that all households report to actively engage in behaviours to reduce food waste; these can be everything from a shared grocery list or taking care of leftovers. However, households report barriers in particular related to capability, such as knowing what is needed to further reduce food waste and understanding the consequences of food waste reduction, and to opportunity, including social influences to reduce food waste and environmental resources and context, for example, time constraints amid the many other demands of everyday life. This implies that policy interventions for reducing household food waste should help them to overcome barriers of time constraints, provide them with social influences within and outside the household, and strengthen their behavioural regulation
SN  - 2666-8335
ER  -