During the first UK lockdown of 2020, self-reported food waste levels in the country fell by 34 percent – the sharpest fall on record. That is according to figures from Zero Waste Scotland and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), who have partnered with researchers from the University of Leeds to examine UK food waste and consumer behavior during and after lockdown periods.

While self-reported food waste levels did increase from this low point in the following months, careful food shopping and creative cooking contributed to this initial fall, the researchers flag. 

Supporting positive change
In light of the findings, a new national research project has been set up to understand that positive change and use these insights to help citizens waste less food when the pandemic ends.

The 18-month research project has been awarded funding of £328,000 (US$443,885), including a grant of £268,000 (US$362,687) from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19.

The research is led by Dr. Gulbanu Kaptan, Professor Kerrie Unsworth and Dr. Sally Russell (all University of Leeds) and Dr. Tom Quested from WRAP, with support from Zero Waste Scotland.

Kaptan, an associate professor of behavioral decision making at Leeds University Business School, tells FoodIngredientsFirst: “We are just starting the research and hope to have preliminary findings by the end of the year. Research undertaken by WRAP showed that household food waste fell by 34 percent during the first lockdown period in April 2020 – this highlights that there is real potential to bring about meaningful change in how we think about, produce, purchase and consume food.”

“Significant” changes
Research published by WRAP shows significant changes in behavior and a reduction in the self-reported level of food waste in the first national lockdown period, continues Kaptan. 

“While we understand some of this behavior, we want to broaden our knowledge of why the changes came about, and how we can build on this to help people prevent more food going to waste in the future,” she says.

“We are particularly interested in the determinants of behavior. For instance, what impact do our emotions have on wasting food and what are the personal goals and values around how we buy and eat food?”

“Lockdown periods are times of major contextual changes in people’s lives. Therefore, its important for researchers to know how this change has affected behavior, including food waste-related behavior. Change can be negative or positive – as in the case of food waste reduction – and should be maintained (if positive) or amended (if negative).”

“Industry may want to amend their existing strategies in relation to food waste and communications with their consumers accordingly,” adds Kaptan.

Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, says, “The findings from this collaborative project will help us to understand how lockdown has changed our relationship with food and how we can all tackle waste at home. We must do all we can to prevent food waste.”

“When we waste food, we also waste huge amounts of energy and associated carbon emissions from growing, transporting, refrigerating and packaging the food. When we send wasted food to landfill, this causes more harmful emissions. So, we’re looking forward to better understanding how to win the fight against food waste.”

The future of food waste
The project will develop interventions to help support households in wasting less food. To support this, around 1,500 people from across the UK will take part in a survey looking at how they choose, store, manage and cook food. Approximately 30 people will also participate in more detailed interviews and later be asked to keep household diaries of food waste.

“We have the opportunity to learn from the considerable changes we have seen during 2020 to help support UK citizens to minimize the amount of food that they waste,” says Quested, lead analyst at WRAP, co-investigator of the project. 

“The findings from the research will be used by WRAP’s teams developing behavior-change interventions and our Love Food Hate Waste campaign.”