The tools aimed to reduce food waste developed within the EU-funded Wasteless research project were evaluated in 2024 by a sample of Spanish consumers, through the CNTA research centre’s Mundo Sabor platform. (1)
The survey focuses on the accessibility of data on food business operators’ circular economy performances, provided by our company WIISE on a blockchain register, and the wasting habits of Spanish households.
1) Wasteless. Five tools to monitor and reduce food loss and waste (FLW)
Wasteless – an Horizon Europe research and innovation project – aims to test five innovative technological solutions to support food business operators (FBOs) and households (i.e. consumers) in measuring and monitoring the food loss and waste (FLW) generated, with a view to supporting their overall reduction and prevention. (2)
The five tools are among the 10 project results, together with the decision support toolbox for FBOs and the foundation of the Wasteless Community of Practice (CoP) (to which everyone can subscribe) (3). Three of the five tools have been analysed in the Spanish survey:
– Wasteless Open Access Blockchain. An electronic register aimed to collect data on material flows, side streams and their destinies, within every FBO’s activity ‘from farm to fork’. This system can also be used in view to draft the ESG declarations related to circular economy (ESRS 5);
– Automatic system for FW assessment at household. A scale developed by researchers at the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) in Slovenia, which allows the measurement of quantities of food to be disposed of, in combination with an app on smartphones that can capture images of the relevant food category;
– Computer vision-based image analysis. An instrument developed by researchers at the University of Hacettepe (Turkey) similar to a video camera that can capture images of fruit and vegetables inside the refrigerator, and measure and monitor the state of spoilage during storage, reporting mould, colour changes or other quality indicators, such as the percentage of the fraction still edible.
2) Spanish consumers’ survey on food waste reduction
Mundo Sabor is a virtual community developed by the Centro Nacional de Tecnología y Seguridad Alimentaria (CNTA, Spain) researchers, including the experts in the field of sensory analysis and consumer testing for food evaluation Ixone Alonso Miquélez and Irene González Pérez. The platform aims to collect data and consumer impressions through (award-winning) surveys to understand food consumption habits. (4)
The Spanish consumers’ survey on Wasteless tools was set up as a quantitative study, using either the 5-point Likert scale to obtain a point rating to specific questions, and open-ended questions. The information was then statistically processed using special software. The gender participation of consumers was overwhelmingly female (67%), with the average age range between 35-54 years (59.6%), with the rest equally distributed between the lower and upper age groups. Most reside in urban areas (56%), while 37% in neither. The majority have no children (62.41%) and have completed university studies (65.25%), while secondary education is among 32.63% of respondents.
3) Results. Attention to food waste
The sensitivity of Spanish consumers to food waste was tested through the administration of four specific questions. From the point of view of habits, the questions and answers are:
1) Do you think you’re wasting too much food? 65.96% (sum of scores 1 and 2) do not think they fall into this category;
2) Does throwing food away hurt you? As many as 78.82% gave a value of 5 to the answer and 17.02% gave a value of 4, for a total of 95.84%.
3) Are you worried about food waste?The highest values were observed for groups 4 (32.62%) and 5 (62.41%), for a total of 95.03% concern about the issue;
4) Environmental problems and inequality: responses were always directed towards the two highest scores, indicating that 89.36% of respondents cared a lot about these issues.
4) Results. Evaluation of tools
4.1) WASTELESS Open Access Blockchain
The evaluation of blockchain was carried out by a sample of 110 consumers, for whom the appearance of the tool resulted in a clear division of responses (34.86% positive versus 25.69% negative), with the remainder (39.45%) remaining neutral. A similar distribution was observed on the question of ease of use.
The majority of consumers (47.7%) finds unclear how companies could use the tool, while the rest are divided between those who think it should always be used and those who think it should not.
4.2) Automatic system for FW assessment at household
147 consumers rated the tool after watching the video produced by the JSI, expressing uncertainty about its usefulness and practicality, ranking between neutral and usefulness with 31.91% of the votes. The aspects related to graphics and ease of use and interaction were positive, ranking around 40% (score 4).
The scale is useful and easy to use, but is considered to be lacking in certain aspects such as a small measuring capacity, which contrasts with its excessive size for a domestic setting. It should include money that has been ‘eliminated’ with discarded food, providing tips to avoid such waste, and diversified for those who do not use computers or smartphones. It is not clear whether many consumers would use it (31.21% remained neutral), especially those who are not familiar with the issue of food waste.
4.3) Computer vision-based image analysis
137 consumers presented a similar evaluation as for the scale, showing uncertainty about the usefulness and practicality of the instrument. Appearance and ease of use, on the other hand, were more important, with the highest values of 58.96% and 47.76%, respectively.
The aspects considered to be lacking are the possibility of embedding the camera in the fridge, so that it takes photos automatically and signals when food is perishing, calculating the water and nutrients lost in the process. They don’t really like the fact that they have to take photos from different angles or install something in the fridge.
Many consumers were in favour of this, but others considered it not very useful, considering that it is enough (in theory, ed.) to open the refrigerator to see if a food is spoiling. Moreover, many felt that it should be eliminated entirely in any case, even if the spoilage is partial.
5) Overall comparison
The overall evaluation included a comparison of the main aspects analysed through the survey, showing a higher score for all items for the image analysis tool, with the exception of the detail item for food waste analysis, which saw blockchain and scales come out on top.
There is no greater preference between any of the three instruments, but a slight difference could be observed for computer vision-based image analysis (due to these aspects being more in line with consumer needs).
Fig. 1 – Overall assessment of WASTELESS tools (source: CNTA)
6) Accessibility of information
A small sample of 12 respondents was subjected to a specific assessment concerning the accessibility of information uploaded onto the Wasteless blockchain register. For this purpose, participants were given the PDF documents of some fictitious surveys, together with the respective .ots files, necessary for the verification of temporal compliance on OpenTimeStamps.
9 out of 12 respondents (75%) were able to verify the information with the indicated system, while about half (41.7%) found the system impractical and simple (scale 1). The aspect was rather neutral (score 3), with a value of 58.3%. No opinion was expressed on the convienience of possible use by companies, with the neutral average at 66.7%.
7) Consumers’ vision on the blockchain-based register
Qualitative information on the consumers’ vision on the use of blockchain has been collected through open-ended questions, such as:
1) What do you like most about the WASTELESS Blockchain? Transparency and traceability of information for all actors, gathered in a single platform that collects all data free of charge and accessible to all, including consumers (who can verify data, but do not need to enter it into the platform);
2) What do you like least about the WASTELESS Blockchain? The information included in the Blockchain should be simplified and improved in terms of presentation and graphics to be understandable for everyone. It is very long and seems too time-consuming for companies;
3) All the information can (in the future) be found on the product website and accessed via a QR/barcode on the product label itself. What do you think? For 78.9% of respondents, it is good that the information is available on the label (any system that helps prevent waste is welcome), but downloading the files to the computer or phone does not seem practical or safe;
4) Do you think its use would make it possible to analyse food waste in households to take action? This is not clear to consumers and they do not see a relationship between food waste from businesses and food waste from households. It is doubtful that consumers would consult this type of information frequently and, therefore, it is a tool that should only be addressed to businesses.
8) Conclusions
The CNTA survey uploaded to Mundo Sabor allowed, in one fell swoop, to frame the thoughts and attention and habits of a sample of Spanish consumers on food loss and waste, and evaluations on three of the tools designed and developed in the Wasteless project.
The overall results indicate a good degree of acceptability of the proposed innovations. However, these are still limited or unsuitable for consumers due to certain technical aspects of the tools and the education of the consumers themselves, who aren’t familiar yet with the topic.
Online e-learning courses for FBOs, consumers and researchers will be developed in the course of the project, in order to raise awareness on the issue and provide the tools to reduce and prevent food loss and waste.
Dario Dongo and Andrea Adelmo Della Penna
Notes
(1) CNTA (2024) Households_Spain. Testing of the tool/methodologies in CSs across FSC. Analysis report – Consumer study
(2) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. Wasteless, reducing and valorising food waste in blockchain. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12.07.24
(3) Membership of the Community of Practice is available at: https://wastelesseu.com/community-of-practice/
(4) See https://www.mundosabor.es/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in Food Technologies and Biotechnologies, qualified food technologist, he follows the research and development area. With particular regard to European research projects (in Horizon 2020, PRIMA) where the FARE division of WIISE Srl, a benefit company, participates.
