The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food waste behaviour of young people

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyse the way young people perceive the food waste process, as well as the determinants and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the responsible behaviour of young people towards food waste. The research design involves a study on a sample of 375 students from Romanian universities and the development and validation of a model using SEM-PLS. Our findings show that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more people exhibiting food waste reduction behaviour, an increased awareness for the ethics of food waste among young people, and increased awareness of the environmental consequences of food waste. The limits of the paper refer to non-probability sampling technique and sampling structure that is limited to a single country. The practical implications of the study highlight that this pandemic is a good moment to raise awareness among young people about food waste and we discuss possible strategies on this matter. Our research offers a new perspective on food waste in the conditions of current health crisis, and possible anticipated economic recession, in the future.