Universitas Indonesia Conferences, International Conference on Environmental Science and Sustainable Development 2019

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Economic or Religious Information? The Effect of Awareness Information on the Level of Food Waste
Khairun Nisa, Chaikal Nuryakin

Last modified: 2019-10-01

Abstract


FAO in 2009 estimates that globally one in every four calories of food produced for humans is ultimately not consumed or being food waste and loss. In the Food Sustainability Index Report 2016, Indonesia finished second as the world's largest food waste producing country. It is interesting because 87% of the Indonesian population is Muslim, and wasting food is forbidden in Islam. Therefore, efforts to reduce food waste are crucial to be examined including with a religious approach. This research aims to observe the behaviour of consumers related to food waste in a field experiment by giving posters containing food waste related information. Two different groups of consumers will be given posters containing economic data related to food waste (economic info) and posters containing religious evidence that prohibits the act of throwing food (religious info), while one other consumer groups are left without treatment (control). With the Difference in Difference (DID) analysis, it is found that both types of posters containing religious evidence and economic data does not affect the behavior of consumers to reduce food waste. From a qualitative survey with 62 respondents, it was found that posters containing economic info placed at the consumer desk were only aware of the situation by 69% of respondents and only 29% read carefully the poster and affected. As for posters that contain religious info, based on the results of a qualitative survey with 77 respondents found that the poster was only realized by 55% of respondents and only 23% of respondents read carefully the poster and affected. It also found that the cause of respondents’s food waste is almost the same as the causes of food waste by consumers in high-income countries such as in a hurry, portions of food too large, food taste is not good, and already satiety.


Keywords


food waste; experimental method; awareness information; DID