Simple and smart—promoting consumers’ willingness to consume and offer expired but still edible food through an informational intervention

In line with our expectations, we found that EG participants reported a stronger personal norm for the consumption of expired but still edible food as well as lower perceived health risks when consuming expired food than CG participants did. Furthermore, EG participants were significantly more willing to offer expired but still edible food to others in a hypothetical food-choice experiment than CG participants were. A mediation analysis implied this intervention effect to be mediated by participants' personal norm and their perceived health risks. Taken together, the present study provides valuable insights for an intervention designed to prevent household food waste by focusing on relevant consumption practices and going beyond a consumer-focused intervention perspective.