Determination of the factors affecting the Amount of food waste generated from households in Turkey

Aim of this study is to put forward and discuss the analysis results of various factors, on the creation of food waste from households.Online survey application was used with 1488 individuals participated in the study 32.9% of the participants stated that they form 0-1 kg of food waste.The main reasons for food waste are;mouldy food etc.,food left in the refrigerator for too long and the expiration date of food.There was a negative significant association between the amount of food waste in households and age, living place, control of refrigerator/storage cabinet before shopping and preparation of shopping list the time of determination of food to be cooked and frequency of preparing meals with fresh foods, while there was a positive significant association between the amount of food waste in households and household average food consumption per week, a number of women living at home, frequency of food shopping, buying food that is not needed when shopping, frequency of noticing that you forgot to use food once you used in refrigerator/storage cabinet and not use them again, frequency of ordering food at home, frequency of food preparation with prepared food products, and frequency of thinking that portion size of dish was large when cooking or serving a meal. Also, it has been found that there is a statistically significant relationship between the amount of food waste with the profession, shopping place and feeling guilty when throwing food away(p<0.05).Based on the study results, to prevent waste generation behaviours of individuals,effective initiatives can be made with awareness campaigns in various areas.