Publication
The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Food Waste
Authors
Brian Roe, Van Buren Professor in Agricultural, Environmental, and Developmental Economics
Kathryn Bender, Assistant Professor, Dept of Economics, University of Delaware
Danyi Qi, Economist, Amazon
Quick Take
It is no surprise that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted households’ interaction with food. We saw dramatic decreases in consumer spending at restaurants and hotels, with a substantial increase in grocery spending, particularly on pantry items, frozen items, and packaged foods. But the main question involves food waste. Considering that consumption of food is the ultimate reason a food system exists, food waste from a consumer is the greatest waste of resources in that food system. So, what happened regarding food waste because of the pandemic?
To look at food waste across the entire food system, and how the pandemic may have had an impact, researchers developed a framework based on a previous body of literature. They also noted where this framework may not be able to tell the whole story, particularly at smaller scales. Here, they used additional supporting research and existing data to better understand how food waste at the household level may have shifted because of the pandemic.
Results
- On a household scale, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in practices and behaviors that led to reduced food waste. There is evidence that those behaviors continued even after the height of the pandemic began to subside.
- However, U.S. households also increased the number of refrigerators and freezers they operated in response to the pandemic, which may lead to bursts of large-scale food waste after the pandemic subsides and more volatility up and down the food supply chain.
Citation
Roe, B., Bender, K., Qi, D. “The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Food Waste.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, vol. 43, March 2021, p. 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13079