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2.1 Relationship between the attitude towards food waste and the intention of food waste
reduction

The wasting food is the threat of environment. Attitude is the behavioral belief of individual that
hold a favorable or unfavorable stance toward a manner or habit. The positive behavioral
conduct can reduce the food waste and can ensure the sustainability of the environment. The
interpersonal behaviour theory (TIB) has explained the influence of emotions on attitude and
intentions (Jabeen et al., 2023). The lens of planned behavior theory can stimulate consumers’
positive attitude to minimize the wasting of food. The positive attitude toward the dropping of
food leftover can offer some economic advantages i.e., saving money, buy less food, cost
reduction (La Barbera et al., 2016). It can also protect our environment by reducing
environmental degradation and throwing less waste in the landfills and also the moral
responsibility about world hunger. Thus, the positive evaluation of bad impact of food waste can
be explained by the consumers’ attitude. Chun T’ing et al. (2021) examined a significant positive
impact of attitude on behavioral intention (BI) to decrease the food wasting. According to
Jabeen et al. (2023), there is a positive correlation among mindset and adverse emotions and
intents, specifically the belief that food waste is intrinsically harmful. Another study of Teoh,
Koay and Chai (2022) reported that a strong indicator of food waste prevention behaviour is the
desire to decrease food waste. The similar associations between consumers’ attitude and food
waste intentions have been found by the most the prior studies (Huang & Tseng, 2020; Bhatti,
Saleem, Zakariya, & Ahmad, 2023; Aktas et al., 2018).

Therefore, in line with the proposition of above researchers, a hypothesis can be drawn as:

H1 Consumers’ attitude positively influences the food waste intention.

2.2 Relationship between the perceived health risk and the intention of
food waste reduction
Nowadays food wastage has become a global problem. Many studies had been conducted to
solve this problem. Zeng (2022) identified the three ways for the solutions to the reduction of
food wastage i.e., using innovative technologies; adopting marketing perspective; and doing
social practices. The marketing perspective technique for the food wastage reduction has
explored some psychological factors that are closely related to consumers’ perceived risk. Bauer
(1960) defined perceived risk as a mix of unpredictability and unfavorable outcomes. The
research findings of Zeng (2022) revealed that the risks relating to money, health, function,
mental and time can influence the food wasting habit. In addition this, by creating the awareness
regarding environmental degradation and health hazard, the intention of wasting food can be
dropped in case of eco-design packaging. So consumers’ perceived risk is a multi-dimensional
concept that affects the food wastage decisions of consumers. The prior studies proved that the
different dimensions of perceived risks, especially the physical risk that arises from health
hazard, can influence the intention of food wastage. Zeng & Durif (2020) defined health
consciousness as “the degree to which a person plays an active role in maintaining his or her
health” that positively influences the food wastage avoidance. The consumption of green product
(Chang & Chen, 2014) and the environmental consciousness (Feijoo & Moreira, 2020; Nunkoo
et al., 2021) are considered as the favorable determinants for reducing the food waste intention.
From the discussion it is clear that consumers’ perceived health risk creates awareness among
consumers about the quality of food and the environment-friendly food, and hence the perceived
health risk can positively reduce the food wastage. Thus, a proposition can be made as follows:

H2 Consumers’ perceived health risk positively affects the food wastage intention.
References

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