Food waste in households in the Rzeszów area – the survey study

Abstract

Food waste is an undesirable phenomenon from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. This issue concerns not only the production process and the entire supply chain, but also households. In European Union countries, households constitute the main source of food waste. A substantial proportion of food waste occurs already at the stage of purchasing food products. Buying excessive amounts of food may lead to losses resulting from the expiration of shelf life. Another important problem associated with food waste is the preparation of overly large meal portions that cannot be fully consumed. The results of a survey conducted among residents of Rzeszów indicate that the main reasons for food waste were: purchasing too much food, preparing excessively large meal portions, and the low quality of purchased food products. In the surveyed households, the most frequently discarded products included bread and bakery goods, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and processed meat products. According to the vast majority of respondents, food waste is a significant problem in Poland.