Determinants of Households’ Food Waste Behavior in Centeral District of Najaf Abad County: Application of Integrated Model

The main purpose of this study was to determine the type and amount of food waste by households and its effective factors using integrated model. For this purpose, a survey method was used. The statistical population of the study consisted of all households in centeral district of Najaf Abad County. Totally, 405 of which were estimated as sample size according to Bartlett and colleague table and were studied by stratified random sampling technique. The questionnaire face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was approved by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that most household food waste was related to bread, rice, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. The results of the path analysis of the integrated model indicated the direct effect of perceived behavioral control and the social norm and the indirect effect of social norm, problem awareness, feeling of guilt, attitude, moral norm, and internal attribution on the behavior of reducing household food waste. Since awareness of problem is a predictor of independent variables of the path analysis model and indirectly affects on reducing food waste, but it does not have the appropriate status in the studied sample. It is suggested to use different methods of consumers awareness enhancement to describe the negative consequences of food waste behavior.