| Project Detail |
Social norms to stop food waste About a third of all food gets lost or wasted along the global production chain. That is a lot; no other industry reports so much waste. Preventing food loss and waste (FLW) is a priority and offers multiple benefits for people and the planet. One way to address the food-waste crisis is through behavioural change, starting with consumer and household food waste. In this context, the EU-funded CHORIZO project will improve knowledge of how social norms (perceived rules or expectations) determine behaviour related to FLW. This information will be useful for decision-makers and food chain stakeholders. Findings will be used to design innovative communication and education packages aimed at transforming FLW-related social norms. CHORIZO aims to improve the understanding of how social norms (rules or expectations that are socially enforced) influence behaviour related to FLW generation. To significantly accelerate progress towards zero food waste, CHORIZO aims to use this knowledge to increase the effectiveness of decision-making and engagement of food chain actors, in changing social norms towards zero food waste. To achieve its aim, the project will provide evidence on the role of existing social norms in actors’ FLW behaviours through translating results from previous FLW actions into evidence and generate new evidence on social norms & FLW behaviours. Second, CHORIZO will embed these research results into innovation products that can foster change of FLW-related social norms. These products include more effective (sector-based) guidance, communication & science education packages and capacity building actions. CHORIZO employs real-life Case Studies (CSs) to serve its three interlinked purposes: (i) to provide information and data on the context and impact of previous FLW prevention/reduction actions undertaken by the Case Study members, thus enriching the evidence-based analysis on previous FLW actions; (ii) to generate new evidence on the interaction between social norms, behaviour and food waste, to feed into the project’s FW models and innovation products; (iii) to validate the communication & science education packages of the project. Moreover, on the technical side, CHORIZO will utilise advanced modelling techniques to produce solutions that integrate behavioural and economic theories and integrate gender and intersectional analysis to interpret social norm and behavioural data and to effectively engineer innovation processes and outputs. |
