Where and when matter: uncovering the hidden influences on household food waste generation rates

Purpose Current scholarship on household food waste (HFW) is driven by the desire to uncover ways to reduce its amount. This endeavour is based on a set of assumptions that are rarely explicitly articulated. These include the expectation that HFW originates exclusively in the food purchased in the retail sector, that the type of place in which households are embedded plays a limited or no role in the amount and composition of food waste (FW) and that seasonal variations in the amount of produced HFW are unimportant. Design/methodology/approach This longitudinal, three-year research was based on repeated HFW composition analysis from 900 households located in three types of residential areas in a Czech city and on insights from six focus groups held in the same localities. Findings The paper shows that place and time are key factors in informing data collection and analysis needed for the formulation of policies aimed at meeting the ambitious international FW reduction targets. Originality/value The paper supports a currently minor strand of literature to argue that the HFW research needs to widen its focus beyond the usual “household food waste journey”. To increase the accuracy and reliability of the data on the materiality of HFW, the design of future research also needs to replace the one-off data collection with repeated collections that reflect both seasonality and diversity of the types of residential areas.