Food waste (mis)takes: The role of (mis)perception and (mis)estimation

Food waste (mis)takes are implicated as drivers of global issues including climate change, food security, environmental sustainability, and international trade. In this article, we review recent research in this area and generate a novel conceptual organization through which we can understand the theoretical underpinnings of food waste. Our framework identifies consumer (mis)perception of food safety and (mis)estimation of food for consumption as the dominant mechanisms underlying food waste and specifies a set of psychological antecedents that activate these two theoretical drivers. This dynamic conceptual lens offers a framework through which researchers might categorize extant work, frame subsequent research aimed at understanding the drivers of food waste, and design solutions aimed at curbing it.