Determinants of Food Wasting Behavior: The Role of Organic Food Consumption and Environmental Literacy

Mitigating the environmental impacts of the global food system while ensuring food security is a critical challenge, with food waste playing a central role. This study examines the relationships between organic food consumption, environmental literacy, and food wasting behaviors among adults. Through a web-based cross-sectional survey of 1025 adult participants, data were collected using demographic details, the Food Wasting Behaviors Questionnaire, the Organic Food Consumption Scale, and the Environmental Literacy Scale for Adults. Correlation and regression analyses revealed that higher organic food consumption was strongly associated with positive waste-reduction practices, specifically buying as needed and planning shopping. Conversely, organic food consumption also served as a significant predictor for discarding unpalatable foods, indicating a higher propensity for waste generation among organic consumers, which may reflect a green licensing effect. In contrast, higher environmental literacy negatively predicted the tendency of discarding unpalatable foods while exhibiting strong positive relationships with circular waste behaviors, such as sharing food and feeding animals. Demographic analyses identified older age as a predictor of reduced food waste behaviors, whereas higher levels of education and income were associated with elevated waste tendencies. These relationships suggest that while cognitive environmental awareness is associated with active resource recovery, product-centric sustainable choices can paradoxically relax behavioral discipline during the actual consumption stage. In conclusion, to mitigate food waste effectively, interventions must move beyond a sole focus on sustainable product selection; instead, policies should prioritize food management skills and enhance environmental literacy to prevent waste.