The Association Between Safety Preference and Household Food Waste: Evidence from Chinese Households

Household food waste contributes to 60% of the total global food waste. Based on an online questionnaire survey on household food waste in China, this paper explores the association between food safety preference and household food waste. This demonstrates that (1) the excessive concern about food safety significantly increased the proportion of household food waste, the weight of food wasted, and the food waste ratio. The robustness tests supported this finding. (2) heterogeneity analysis showed that the impact of the safety preference on the likelihood of household food waste varied by the gender of respondents, household size, and urban-rural type. The effect of safety preference on the weight of food wasted in the household varied by the gender and education level, household size, income level, urban-rural type, and located region. Thus, the study provides evidence for reducing household food waste in Chinese households through the popularization of food safety knowledge, which has certain implications for reducing food waste and achieving sustainable food consumption in other developing countries.