Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov 29;12(23):4315.
doi: 10.3390/foods12234315.

US Consumers' Awareness, Purchase Intent, and Willingness to Pay for Packaging That Reduces Household Food Waste

Korey Fennell  1 , Guanqi Lu  2 , Monireh Mahmoudi  1 , Euihark Lee  1 , Eva Almenar  1
Affiliations

US Consumers' Awareness, Purchase Intent, and Willingness to Pay for Packaging That Reduces Household Food Waste

Korey Fennell et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Food waste is a barrier to the development of sustainable food systems, and a large portion of it occurs at the household level. Household food waste can be decreased by using appropriate packaging. Despite the high rate of food waste in US households, little is known about how packaging affects this. This study assessed US consumers' awareness of how structural packaging designs and technologies affect food freshness and their willingness to purchase and to pay extra for packaging designed to reduce household food waste. To gather data, 1000 US consumers were surveyed online. Responses were analyzed overall and by population segments. The impacts of only 3 out of 15 structural packaging designs on maintaining food freshness were known by >50% of consumers. Regarding packaging technologies, while 78% of consumers knew about the impact of vacuum packaging on maintaining food freshness, just 27.6, 23, and 16% knew how modified atmosphere packaging, active packaging, and aseptic packaging affected food freshness. Only 32% of consumers knew that intelligent packaging provides information on food freshness. Just 9% of consumers recognized that foods in plastic pouches and cans possess the same food freshness. Approximately 91% of consumers will always/sometimes buy food in most of the above packaging technologies after learning about them. Half were willing to pay more for food in packages that reduce household food waste, and 40% may. Differences (p ≤ 0.05) and two-way interactions were observed between population segments. This study's findings can help develop new packaging, education campaigns, and policies to reduce household food waste in the US.

Keywords: education; food freshness; packaging design; packaging technologies; population segments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of this study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Consumers’ awareness (green) of the impact of structural packaging designs commonly found in US supermarkets (bottom) on maintaining the freshness of cherries, milk, bread, chicken, and peanut butter.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Consumers’ awareness of the ability of different packaging technologies to maintain food freshness or to provide information about the food product. Participant responses are presented in different colors: A (green), B (blue), I don’t know (dark gray), and no difference (light gray). A and B correspond to the left and right packages of each photo in Table 3. The correct response for each packaging technology is highlighted using a red rectangle.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Consumers’ purchase intent of food commercialized in MAP, AP, IP, RP, ASP, and VP after learning about these packaging technologies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Feeding America. [(accessed on 12 October 2023)]. Available online: https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/reduce-food-waste.
    1. RTS Food Waste in America in 2020: Statistics & Facts. [(accessed on 26 May 2023)]. Available online: https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
    1. Wikström F., Williams H., Trischler J., Rowe Z. The Importance of Packaging Functions for Food Waste of Different Products in Households. Sustainability. 2019;11:2641. doi: 10.3390/su11092641. - DOI
    1. Chan R.B.Y. Packaging Solutions for Household Food Waste in the Context of the Food/Beverage–Packaging Industry: A Comparative Review of Empirical Literature and Industry Press Releases. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 2022;185:106479. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106479. - DOI
    1. ReFED Food Waste Problem. [(accessed on 27 May 2023)]. Available online: https://refed.org/food-waste/the-problem?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI34vG8rWU_wIVS...

LinkOut - more resources