the influence of food habits and experiences on
THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD HABITS AND EXPERIENCES ON JAPANESE YOUNG PEOPLE'S PERCEPTION ON WASTAGE OF EDIBLE FOOD T. OKAYAMA*, K. WATANABE** * Taisho University, 3-20-1 Nishisugamo Toshima 1700001 Japan ** Teikyo University, 359 Otsuka Hachioji 1920395 Japan
SUMMARY: A questionnaire survey was conducted to Japanese university students, on their part time job experience with food establishments, current and past experience and habits relating to food, and their opinions on wastage of food. Survey results indicate that instructions at home had the strongest influence in building up students' attitudes against wasting food at various settings. Instructions at schools lunches and taking environmental courses in university contributed to a lesser degree. On the other hand, experience in food-related job made students more affirmative about current practice on wasting food. Analysis results also indicated a connection between concerns on "best before" dates and support on the current practice.
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Food waste - Classification and its extent in Japan Not all food that is produced for human consumption ends up in people's stomachs. Some food items will be destined to non-food use, some food is depreciated during transport and storage, some parts of food are actually not edible and will be removed before eating. Even the purely edible fraction is not completely appreciated - a significant part of that is disposed of in the food supply chain, or destined to the bin by the consumer. Different bodies use different terms for various part of food that was lost or wasted. In Fig.1 we attempted to make a correspondence between terms used in Japan and that in English. In the UN/FAO definition, “food waste” is a subset of “food loss” (Think.Eat.Save 2015, Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction 2015), while in Japan the term “food loss” (shokuhin rosu) is used to indicate the wastage of edible part of food, thus a subset of “food waste” (shokuhin haikibutsu) which includes the inedible parts. UN/FAO do not include the inedible parts in either food loss or food waste, while FUSIONS' notion of "food waste" is basically equivalent to the Japanese one (EUFUSIONS n.d). WRAP UK (2013) describes the waste of potentially edible food as "avoidable food waste", while the inedible parts are "unavoidable food waste". A totally different definition applies in the context of SDG 12.3 which is based on monetary value of food (Gennari 2016). According to the Ministry of Agriculture Fishery and Forestry (MAFF) Japan's statistics
Proceedings Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium/ 2 - 6 October 2017 S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy / © 2017 by CISA Publisher, Italy
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
relating to the food recycling law (note) (MAFF 2016), total "food waste" including inedible parts in 2014 was 27.75Mt, of which 8.22Mt originated from households, and 19.53Mt from commercial sources. This accounts to 33.5% of crude food supply of Japan. This means that more than 1/3 of all food intended for human consumption did not fulfil its purpose. "Potentially edible food waste" such as unsold or expired food and plate leftovers adds up to 6.21Mt, 3.39Mt of commercial origin and 2.82Mt household. 34.3% of food waste from households (i.e. kitchen waste) is deemed potentially edible (there are other sources that indicate as much as 50% of kitchen waste is potentially edible (Takatsuki 2006)) MAFF classifies "edible food waste" into the following: (1) depreciation of food in transport and storage (postharvest loss), (2) unsold or expired food, (3) plate leftovers, and (4) excessive removal of inedible parts. Edible food waste from food wholesalers and food retailer amounts to 1.27Mt, edible fraction of food waste from food service (restaurants cafes etc.) 1.94Mt.
Figure 1. Different notions of "food loss" and "food waste" 1.2 Students and food waste Food related businesses such as fast food restaurants and convenience stores provide large part-time job opportunities for students. A large number of students take up part-time jobs while attending university. There are more than 7000 convenience stores in Tokyo prefecture alone. Most convenience stores in Tokyo run 24h/7days, and many fast food chains operate into small hours. It is said that their operation relies on part time labour provided by students (Toyo Keizai 2014). Especially students that are not enrolled in top ranked universities tend to take up those food related work at a relatively low wage of ca. USD8.4/hour (Jun ltd 2016). Many food-related establishments throw away a large amount of food as business practise (Stewart 2009, Kreuzberger and Thurn 2012). It is likely that students witness such scenes, or actually be engaged in the disposal operation. Some students report to teaching staffs in the university that they were shocked to see a massive amount of food being disposed, while they are aware that there are a significant number of people in the world suffering from hunger. Fukuoka at the Osaka Institute of Technology initiated the "Food Loss Shock Study Group" (hereafter "study group") in 2015. In the same year, the study group conducted a questionnaire survey among students at four universities (Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka Industrial University, Oberlin University, Taisho University), to investigate the students' attitudes and responses to wastage of food (Fukuoka et al 2016). This paper is based on the results of the questionnaire survey in Taisho University where the
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
first author is affiliated to, and in Teikyo University which is the affiliation of the second author who is not a member of the abovementioned study group. The main objective of this survey was to identify what factors and experiences in their upbringing and education shaped the students' attitudes and behaviours towards food wastage. The questionnaire sheet for the study group's 2015 survey was used as the basis of this survey (appendix 1). The authors modified it with additional questions, and altering the applicability of each questions, to serve the research objectives. Table 1. Contents of survey sheet 2. METHODOLOGY 2.1 Design of survey sheet A Questionnaire survey consisting of 40 questions (including 7 questions on personal attributes, such as eating and cooking customs at home, and experience of part time jobs including involvement in mass disposal of food at work) was prepared. Table 1 shows the content of the survey (English translation of the survey sheet is shown in Appendix 1). Some questions were only applicable to students with experience in part time jobs. This was to observe the effect of the experience of mass food disposal, e.g. change in attitudes, which was the focus of Fukuoka et al (2016). 2.2 Survey subjects Surveys were conducted in Taisho and Teikyo Universities, in July and September 2015. Taisho University is located in central Tokyo, while the Hachioji Campus of Teikyo University where the survey was carried out is located in the suburb, 35km west of central Tokyo. Both Universities are ranked mid to low in terms of school grades of admitted students. Survey sheets were distributed, filled in and collected at university classrooms. We obtained altogether 406 valid responses. In terms of university affiliation, Table 2. Summary of survey subjects 294 at Taisho, and 112 at Teikyo. The gender ratio was 59%(male): 41%(female). The summary of responses is shown in table 2.
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
In this survey, in addition to conventional personal attribute information such as age and gender, we created an additional attribute, "environment" and "non-environment" students. At Taisho University, undergraduate students enrolled in the environment policy major (course) were identified as "environment" students. The "non environment" group in Taisho consists of undergraduate students majoring in variety of other humanity subjects. Since Teikyo University does not have an environment related major, undergraduate students taking a lecture series on environment were tagged as "environment". They were enrolled in different social sciences and humanity departments (e.g., economics, law, literature). The "non-environment" sample in Teikyo consists of undergraduate students in the sociology department, taking social statistics or programming practicals (selection of classes was due to logistic factors).
3. ANALYSIS 3.1 Attitudes to wastage of food We carried out some cross tabulation and statistical testing (Fig. 2). Our interest is how the attitudes towards food waste are affected by students' upbringing and experiences. We identified four questionnaire items as dependent variables. They are attitudes towards food Figure 2. Dependent and Independent variables waste by businesses (Q11-1), by oneself at home (Q11-3), at restaurants (Q11-4), and by others (customers) at restaurants (Q104-e). In Q11-1, we classified responses (3) (should be discouraged) and (4) (should be prohibited) as attitudes against food waste. In Q11-3 and 4, response (3) (uneasy with wasting any amount or type of food) are tagged as such. For Q10-4-e, we compared those who are (1) very much or (2) somewhat concerned with customers ordering excessive amounts of food, against the rest ((3), (4) and (5)). We also created a composite boolean variable "against food waste in all settings" which takes the value of 1 when responses for Q11-1,3,4 and Q10-4-e above indicate anti food waste. The independent variables were as follows (see also Table 1): "environment" / "nonenvironment", gender (Q1-2), current situation of housing (Q3-1b), presence of non-full time working adult (Q3-2AB), presence of more than 3 adults (extended family) (Q3-2A), currently cook own dinner (Q3-3), eat breakfast alone at primary school age (Q4), eat dinner alone at high school age (Q4), scolded if left food at home (Q5), instruction at school lunches (Q6), experience of food disposal at work (Q9). Some questionnaire items were not included as independent variables because of lack of variance (i.e. the responses were dominated by one choice).
Proceedings Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium/ 2 - 6 October 2017 S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy / © 2017 by CISA Publisher, Italy
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
3.1.1 Wastage of food by businesses 3.1.1.1 Cross tabulation of opinion and independent variables Most respondents accepted that some wastage of food by businesses is inevitable. Only 10 respondents chose that wasting food at businesses is something that should not be happening. 139 is of the opinion that it should be discouraged, while 173 think it is a normal thing to do, and another 80 stated that it is a necessary thing to do. We grouped the former two responses (should be prohibited / discouraged) as "against food waste" and carried out chi squared analyses on cross tabulations with the independent variables. We also treated the response number (1 to 4) as a measure of resistance against food wastage and carried out t-tests on the difference of average values. "Scolded for not finishing food at home" had the highest significance (χ2=6.17 p=0.013 / t=2.675, p=0.008). Those with no experience of food disposal at work tended to be more against food wastage by businesses (χ2=4.77, p=0.029 / t=1.990, p=0.047) (Fig. 3).
Figure 3 Opinions on food wastage by businesses, according to work experience
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
Figure 4. Reasons for opinions on food wastage at businesses 3.1.1.2 Reasons for opinions on food wastage at businesses In question Q11-2 we asked about the reasons for the opinions selected above in Q11-1. The results are summarised in Fig. 4. "Necessary rule for maintaining food hygiene" was the most popular reason chosen by those who are affirmative about food wastage (35%, Q11-2). This was especially the dominant reasoning for those with experiences of food disposal at work (p
SUMMARY: A questionnaire survey was conducted to Japanese university students, on their part time job experience with food establishments, current and past experience and habits relating to food, and their opinions on wastage of food. Survey results indicate that instructions at home had the strongest influence in building up students' attitudes against wasting food at various settings. Instructions at schools lunches and taking environmental courses in university contributed to a lesser degree. On the other hand, experience in food-related job made students more affirmative about current practice on wasting food. Analysis results also indicated a connection between concerns on "best before" dates and support on the current practice.
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Food waste - Classification and its extent in Japan Not all food that is produced for human consumption ends up in people's stomachs. Some food items will be destined to non-food use, some food is depreciated during transport and storage, some parts of food are actually not edible and will be removed before eating. Even the purely edible fraction is not completely appreciated - a significant part of that is disposed of in the food supply chain, or destined to the bin by the consumer. Different bodies use different terms for various part of food that was lost or wasted. In Fig.1 we attempted to make a correspondence between terms used in Japan and that in English. In the UN/FAO definition, “food waste” is a subset of “food loss” (Think.Eat.Save 2015, Global Initiative on Food Loss and Waste Reduction 2015), while in Japan the term “food loss” (shokuhin rosu) is used to indicate the wastage of edible part of food, thus a subset of “food waste” (shokuhin haikibutsu) which includes the inedible parts. UN/FAO do not include the inedible parts in either food loss or food waste, while FUSIONS' notion of "food waste" is basically equivalent to the Japanese one (EUFUSIONS n.d). WRAP UK (2013) describes the waste of potentially edible food as "avoidable food waste", while the inedible parts are "unavoidable food waste". A totally different definition applies in the context of SDG 12.3 which is based on monetary value of food (Gennari 2016). According to the Ministry of Agriculture Fishery and Forestry (MAFF) Japan's statistics
Proceedings Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium/ 2 - 6 October 2017 S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy / © 2017 by CISA Publisher, Italy
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
relating to the food recycling law (note) (MAFF 2016), total "food waste" including inedible parts in 2014 was 27.75Mt, of which 8.22Mt originated from households, and 19.53Mt from commercial sources. This accounts to 33.5% of crude food supply of Japan. This means that more than 1/3 of all food intended for human consumption did not fulfil its purpose. "Potentially edible food waste" such as unsold or expired food and plate leftovers adds up to 6.21Mt, 3.39Mt of commercial origin and 2.82Mt household. 34.3% of food waste from households (i.e. kitchen waste) is deemed potentially edible (there are other sources that indicate as much as 50% of kitchen waste is potentially edible (Takatsuki 2006)) MAFF classifies "edible food waste" into the following: (1) depreciation of food in transport and storage (postharvest loss), (2) unsold or expired food, (3) plate leftovers, and (4) excessive removal of inedible parts. Edible food waste from food wholesalers and food retailer amounts to 1.27Mt, edible fraction of food waste from food service (restaurants cafes etc.) 1.94Mt.
Figure 1. Different notions of "food loss" and "food waste" 1.2 Students and food waste Food related businesses such as fast food restaurants and convenience stores provide large part-time job opportunities for students. A large number of students take up part-time jobs while attending university. There are more than 7000 convenience stores in Tokyo prefecture alone. Most convenience stores in Tokyo run 24h/7days, and many fast food chains operate into small hours. It is said that their operation relies on part time labour provided by students (Toyo Keizai 2014). Especially students that are not enrolled in top ranked universities tend to take up those food related work at a relatively low wage of ca. USD8.4/hour (Jun ltd 2016). Many food-related establishments throw away a large amount of food as business practise (Stewart 2009, Kreuzberger and Thurn 2012). It is likely that students witness such scenes, or actually be engaged in the disposal operation. Some students report to teaching staffs in the university that they were shocked to see a massive amount of food being disposed, while they are aware that there are a significant number of people in the world suffering from hunger. Fukuoka at the Osaka Institute of Technology initiated the "Food Loss Shock Study Group" (hereafter "study group") in 2015. In the same year, the study group conducted a questionnaire survey among students at four universities (Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka Industrial University, Oberlin University, Taisho University), to investigate the students' attitudes and responses to wastage of food (Fukuoka et al 2016). This paper is based on the results of the questionnaire survey in Taisho University where the
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
first author is affiliated to, and in Teikyo University which is the affiliation of the second author who is not a member of the abovementioned study group. The main objective of this survey was to identify what factors and experiences in their upbringing and education shaped the students' attitudes and behaviours towards food wastage. The questionnaire sheet for the study group's 2015 survey was used as the basis of this survey (appendix 1). The authors modified it with additional questions, and altering the applicability of each questions, to serve the research objectives. Table 1. Contents of survey sheet 2. METHODOLOGY 2.1 Design of survey sheet A Questionnaire survey consisting of 40 questions (including 7 questions on personal attributes, such as eating and cooking customs at home, and experience of part time jobs including involvement in mass disposal of food at work) was prepared. Table 1 shows the content of the survey (English translation of the survey sheet is shown in Appendix 1). Some questions were only applicable to students with experience in part time jobs. This was to observe the effect of the experience of mass food disposal, e.g. change in attitudes, which was the focus of Fukuoka et al (2016). 2.2 Survey subjects Surveys were conducted in Taisho and Teikyo Universities, in July and September 2015. Taisho University is located in central Tokyo, while the Hachioji Campus of Teikyo University where the survey was carried out is located in the suburb, 35km west of central Tokyo. Both Universities are ranked mid to low in terms of school grades of admitted students. Survey sheets were distributed, filled in and collected at university classrooms. We obtained altogether 406 valid responses. In terms of university affiliation, Table 2. Summary of survey subjects 294 at Taisho, and 112 at Teikyo. The gender ratio was 59%(male): 41%(female). The summary of responses is shown in table 2.
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
In this survey, in addition to conventional personal attribute information such as age and gender, we created an additional attribute, "environment" and "non-environment" students. At Taisho University, undergraduate students enrolled in the environment policy major (course) were identified as "environment" students. The "non environment" group in Taisho consists of undergraduate students majoring in variety of other humanity subjects. Since Teikyo University does not have an environment related major, undergraduate students taking a lecture series on environment were tagged as "environment". They were enrolled in different social sciences and humanity departments (e.g., economics, law, literature). The "non-environment" sample in Teikyo consists of undergraduate students in the sociology department, taking social statistics or programming practicals (selection of classes was due to logistic factors).
3. ANALYSIS 3.1 Attitudes to wastage of food We carried out some cross tabulation and statistical testing (Fig. 2). Our interest is how the attitudes towards food waste are affected by students' upbringing and experiences. We identified four questionnaire items as dependent variables. They are attitudes towards food Figure 2. Dependent and Independent variables waste by businesses (Q11-1), by oneself at home (Q11-3), at restaurants (Q11-4), and by others (customers) at restaurants (Q104-e). In Q11-1, we classified responses (3) (should be discouraged) and (4) (should be prohibited) as attitudes against food waste. In Q11-3 and 4, response (3) (uneasy with wasting any amount or type of food) are tagged as such. For Q10-4-e, we compared those who are (1) very much or (2) somewhat concerned with customers ordering excessive amounts of food, against the rest ((3), (4) and (5)). We also created a composite boolean variable "against food waste in all settings" which takes the value of 1 when responses for Q11-1,3,4 and Q10-4-e above indicate anti food waste. The independent variables were as follows (see also Table 1): "environment" / "nonenvironment", gender (Q1-2), current situation of housing (Q3-1b), presence of non-full time working adult (Q3-2AB), presence of more than 3 adults (extended family) (Q3-2A), currently cook own dinner (Q3-3), eat breakfast alone at primary school age (Q4), eat dinner alone at high school age (Q4), scolded if left food at home (Q5), instruction at school lunches (Q6), experience of food disposal at work (Q9). Some questionnaire items were not included as independent variables because of lack of variance (i.e. the responses were dominated by one choice).
Proceedings Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium/ 2 - 6 October 2017 S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy / © 2017 by CISA Publisher, Italy
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
3.1.1 Wastage of food by businesses 3.1.1.1 Cross tabulation of opinion and independent variables Most respondents accepted that some wastage of food by businesses is inevitable. Only 10 respondents chose that wasting food at businesses is something that should not be happening. 139 is of the opinion that it should be discouraged, while 173 think it is a normal thing to do, and another 80 stated that it is a necessary thing to do. We grouped the former two responses (should be prohibited / discouraged) as "against food waste" and carried out chi squared analyses on cross tabulations with the independent variables. We also treated the response number (1 to 4) as a measure of resistance against food wastage and carried out t-tests on the difference of average values. "Scolded for not finishing food at home" had the highest significance (χ2=6.17 p=0.013 / t=2.675, p=0.008). Those with no experience of food disposal at work tended to be more against food wastage by businesses (χ2=4.77, p=0.029 / t=1.990, p=0.047) (Fig. 3).
Figure 3 Opinions on food wastage by businesses, according to work experience
Sardinia 2017 / Sixteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium / 2 - 6 October 2017
Figure 4. Reasons for opinions on food wastage at businesses 3.1.1.2 Reasons for opinions on food wastage at businesses In question Q11-2 we asked about the reasons for the opinions selected above in Q11-1. The results are summarised in Fig. 4. "Necessary rule for maintaining food hygiene" was the most popular reason chosen by those who are affirmative about food wastage (35%, Q11-2). This was especially the dominant reasoning for those with experiences of food disposal at work (p
