Are people really aware that they waste food? If the answer is yes, then..., if however the answer is no, then the research is put to a halt? Certainly, this type of question should be avoided.

Secondly, what are the variables of importance to measure? Awareness, readiness, and adoption?

Murtala Ismail Adakawa thank you for your constructive feedback

Social media plays a crucial role in raising awareness about food wastage among the Nepali population. Here's how it can contribute:

1. Information dissemination: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a vast reach to share information about food wastage. Organizations and individuals can post statistics, facts, and tips on reducing food waste, reaching a large audience quickly.

2. Visual impact: Social media platforms allow for the sharing of images and videos that can have a powerful impact on raising awareness. Sharing pictures of wasted food or videos showcasing the consequences of food wastage can evoke emotions and encourage people to take action.

3. Engaging campaigns: Social media allows for the creation of interactive campaigns to engage the Nepali population actively. Challenges, contests, or hashtags related to reducing food waste can go viral, encouraging people to participate and spread awareness further.

4. Influencer collaborations: Collaborating with social media influencers who have a significant following can amplify the message about food wastage. Influencers can share personal experiences, tips, or recipes that promote responsible consumption and reduce waste.

5. Community building: Social media platforms enable the creation of communities focused on reducing food waste in Nepal. These communities can share ideas, success stories, and challenges faced while addressing this issue, fostering a sense of collective responsibility.

6. Education and resources: Social media provides an accessible platform to share educational content such as infographics, articles, or podcasts related to food wastage reduction strategies. This helps in disseminating knowledge and empowering individuals with practical solutions.

7. Networking opportunities: Social media facilitates connections between organizations working towards reducing food waste in Nepal. It allows them to collaborate, share resources, coordinate events or campaigns effectively.

However, it is important to note that social media alone cannot solve the problem of food wastage entirely; it should be complemented by other initiatives like policy changes, education programs, and community engagement efforts for long-term impact.

This is an increasingly 'hot topic' as countries around the world struggle with their methane emissions and wasted resources lost in food production. From an Australian perspective, research has turned to the utilisation of social media as a behaviour change tool. I would recommend exploring the following if you have not already done so:

1. Sharon Rundle Theale (Article Outcome Evaluation of an Empirical Study: Food Waste Social ...

Article Outcome Evaluation of an Empirical Study: Food Waste Social ...

2. The work of the Australian Household Food Waste CRC (e.g. https://fightfoodwastecrc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Summary-Report_final.pdf)

Happy to supply more information if you wish as this is also my area of study.

Regards

Esther

Social media can help to raise awareness and also cause shame to those who are wasteful. This can be a great driver for change.

Dear Doctor

Go To

A review of factors reducing waste in the food supply chain: The retailer perspective

Barbara Flores Pimentel, Fotios Misopoulos, Jennifer Davies

Cleaner Waste Systems 3 (2022) 100028

[Conclusion

Based on the review of 175 peer-reviewed academic articles, the present study has revealed that supermarkets are the most researched type of food retailer in food waste research, followed by non-conventional retailers and grocery stores. Food retailers play an important role due to their unique position to drive food waste reduction behaviors in different actors in the FSC. To assist food retail organizations and stakeholders who are seeking to reduce food waste in the FSC, the study has identified all influences that impact the volume of food waste across the different stages of the FSC from a retailers’ perspective; particularly, it analyzed the positive influences contributing to reduce food waste. There were 44 food reduction factors, grouped into 12 categories. Approaching the topic from a combined view of two different theoretical lenses, the organizational theory, as discussed by Özbük and Coşkun (2020), and the Triple Bottom Line framework, provided the opportunity for the present study to broaden its scope, going beyond the limits of the supply chains and identifying food reduction factors within the wider macro-environment under which a food retail organization operates. The macro-environment dimension of the organization theory yielded political, sociocultural, environmental, technological, and economic influences, which may exert either positive or negative effects to food waste reduction. Based on the mapping of the reviewed articles in the Appendix, the most addressed influences of the food retailers’ macro-environment are the “regulatory” and the “technological” factors concerning the prevention or reduction of food waste, and the “environmental” factor related to food waste generation. The microenvironment dimension of the food retail organization includes the influences of competitors, customers, suppliers and external entities. The “customers” and “suppliers” factors received the most attention from researchers (both positive and negative perspectives). The “external entities”, such as various pressure groups, strategic partners, and industry groups, were mainly considered as positive factors to food waste reduction. The internal environment dimension is classified in three types of influences, those of “management”, “operations”, and “marketing”. All three have received significant attention from researchers, with the former two being the most frequently mentioned of all factors in the literature for preventing or reducing food waste. This aligns with the finding of Cicatiello et al. (2020), where improved operations were perceived by retail store managers as the main factor in reducing food waste. This review highlights several sociocultural, environmental and economic factors that impact food waste relating to the TBL concept spanning the macro, micro and internal organizational environments. These factors are often interrelated, emphasizing the relevance of incorporating the TBL concept into food waste research. For example, the findings of this review highlight that achieving economic growth in developing countries could help increase investment into the necessary technologies and supply chain infrastructure required to reduce food waste substantially. Subsequently, this would help to reduce the negative environmental impacts of food waste (e.g. the depletion of natural resources and the contribution to climate change) and also help to address some of the social concerns related to food shortages and food security. The goals of food waste reduction intertwine with the goals of sustainable development. Hence, the TBL is an appropriate framework for approaching future food waste research. The present study attempted to expand on the work of previous systematic reviews such as those of Özbük and Coşkun (2020), Moraes et al. (2020), and Chkanikova and Mont (2015). The SLR conducted by Özbük and Coşkun (2020) analyzed 92 articles, disclosing potential causes of food waste at the downstream levels of the FSC and classified them into the three dimensions of the organizational theory. The current study repositioned the microenvironment influences of the retail organization and enhanced the macro-environment influences with the “technological” factor, which has gained growing attention in recent years, as seen in the Appendix. The SLR performed by Moraes et al. (2020) investigated 54 articles published until July 2017. Their analysis mapped causes of food waste and reduction practices in the food retail sector and provided a categorization of six groups of causes based on the Ishikawa Diagram. Their approach differs widely from that of the present study. Nevertheless, the factors they identified are supported by the current study. The claim of the authors in the two studies mentioned above, stating that very few studies exist offering comprehensive research, such as SLR on food waste, is also confirmed by this study. Chkanikova and Mont (2015) stated that academic research on the various factors affecting what they refer to as ‘Supply Chain Responsibility’ in food retail is lacking. They suggested that providing a deeper understanding of these factors would help assist retail businesses. Their study classified four major groups of external factors that exert pressure on food retailers, based on the taxonomy of institutional factors. Whilst the aforementioned study focuses solely on external factors, the present work expands upon this and provides a comprehensive classification covering the influences on food waste existing in the three dimensions of the retail organization. One of the most notable developments during the deployment of this study was the recent pandemic. Borsellino et al. (2020) and Lombardi and Costantino (2020) presented the influences of food waste on the food retail chain in the context of Covid-19. Borsellino et al. (2020) identified a substantial reduction in food waste during the Covid-19 pandemic. The changes in the food retail industry that arose from the pandemic present an opportunity to transform the current structure to a more sustainable FSC due to changes in behaviors, (online) ordering, and (home) deliveries. A more recent study conducted by Huang et al. (2021) provided a systematic review focusing on reported retail food waste practices and developed a framework based on five approaches, namely, repositioning, reallocating, reacting, re-engineering and relating. Those approaches are translated into retailers’ mitigation activities of food waste such as reduce, reuse, recycle, recover for energy, and disposal (Huang et al., 2021). These are positioned under the umbrella of the internal category, more specifically, in the operations and marketing factor classification, and the microenvironment category such as the supplier factor classification of the present study. The study contributes to the food waste body of knowledge and to the wider academic literature of sustainable food supply chains and retailers’ perspectives on food waste. It combines organizational theory and the TBL in the analysis and unification of studies with a methodology that amalgamates the three macro-stages and the PRISMA statement for reporting the systematic review. The range of the food waste influential factors identified in the study can provide a valuable guide for practitioners and decision makers in the food industry as it covers the whole spectrum of the related entities and activities of the retailers’ organizational environment.]

@Prof Sundus F. Hantoosh

Thank you so much for this wonderful contribution.