From Tempting Aisles to Guilty Leftovers: Exploring Generation Z’s Food Waste Behavior Through the Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability Framework

This study uses the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) framework to examine the drivers of food waste behavior among Generation Z, a demographic that contributes disproportionately to household food waste. Using structural equation modeling on survey data from 349 undergraduate students, the influence of morals and attitudes toward food waste (motivation), cooking and grocery shopping skills (ability), food purchase triggers, and frequencies of grocery shopping and cooking (opportunity) was investigated. The results indicate that strong moral convictions and creative cooking skills significantly reduce waste. Conversely, susceptibility to marketing-driven purchase triggers increases wasteful behavior. Notably, other factors such as shopping frequency and attitudes toward food waste showed no significant impact. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions for young consumers that reinforce moral motivations, enhance practical culinary abilities, and mitigate the impact of predatory purchase triggers to effectively curb food waste.