Healthy Lifestyle and Food Waste Behaviors

Healthy lifestyle is usually investigated for its influence on salutary food choices, habits, and regular physical activity, as well as for its function in preventing chronic diseases (Gadais et al. 2018). Furthermore, some studies also attempted to analyze the huge impact of this topic on the marketplace, particularly with reference to the food industry (Divine and Lepisto 2005), and dietary supplements (Miles Homer and Mukherjee 2018). However, few contributions (Roodhuyzen et al. 2017) focused their attention on the possible relation between healthy lifestyle and food waste intensity. For this reason, the study aims to enrich this research gap by investigating the possible impact of a healthier food lifestyle (i.e., regular eating habits, healthy food consumption, habits of eating at home) on both food waste intensity and actions preventing food waste. Moreover, the paper investigates the mediating effect of actions preventing food waste on the relationship between lifestyle components and food waste intensity. Based on an online survey of 1941 consumers, the research hypotheses were tested using PLS-PM approach to Structural Equation Model. Results show that consumption of healthy food positively influences food waste preventing behaviours, while it has a negative effect on food waste intensity. This means that people, putting high attention on the healthy properties of foods they eat, tend to follow a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Additionally, meals’ regularity has no significant impact on food waste intensity, while it positively affects the adoption of actions preventing it. Finally, the greater the propensity to eat at home, the lower the intensity of food waste is, while actions preventing food waste are improved by such a habit. This result suggests that people, who prefer to eat at home, produce less food waste by showing great abilities in planning food purchases, reusing leftovers, and managing food before its deterioration. Concerning the mediation analysis, findings indicate that food waste prevention plays the role of partial mediation on both the relationships healthy food consumption-food waste, and habits of eating at home-food waste. This means that even if consumers are driven by health-related values, the intensity of food waste reduction is higher when they are also led by a positive attitude towards food waste reduction. The study provides both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical viewpoint, the work deepens the food waste management literature by focusing on consumers’ lifestyle and by considering actions preventing food waste. Furthermore, the article focuses its attention on the causal mechanisms of consumer food waste – a topic still little explored – by confirming that preventing behaviours can improve the influence of healthy lifestyle dimensions on food waste intensity. Managerially, the article provides implications for institutions, associations, producers, and retailers by identifying possible strategies for reducing the food waste intensity. © 2020, The Academy of Marketing Science.