Capitalising on COVID-19 as a Trigger for Positive Change in Food Waste Behaviour

家庭食物浪费是一个公认的社会问题，导致温室气体产生、粮食不安全和粮食价格上涨。在英国，家庭食物垃圾占所有农场后食物垃圾的70%，这一点得到了英国政府的迈克尔·戈夫的认可：“没有人愿意看到好的食物被浪费掉。这会损害我们的环境，对商业不利--而且在道德上是站不住脚的。”尽管过去已经有减少食物浪费的研究，但这个问题在很大程度上一直很难解决，直到新冠肺炎被封锁。新冠肺炎被封锁已经成为人们日常生活中的一个重大背景变化。然而，正如废物与资源行动计划(WRAP)和英国媒体的报告所表明的那样，它已经导致了与食物浪费相关的行为的积极变化。例如，英国消费者报告说，与2018-2019年的平均水平相比，英国消费者提高了减少家庭食物浪费的意识和意愿，导致4种关键产品(面包、牛奶、土豆和鸡肉)的食物浪费减少了34%。然而，随着封锁的容易，这些变化可能不会持续很长时间。我们的研究旨在利用食物浪费行为的积极变化，并调查长期维持这种变化的机会。因此，我们的项目将(1)确定在封锁状态下影响食物浪费行为的因素，(2)开发、实施和评估支持积极行为改变的干预措施，以及(3)利用我们与WRAP和零浪费苏格兰的合作伙伴关系在英国传播结果。这项研究的结果将对英国的食品不安全、消费者的成本节约和食品价格上涨产生积极的社会和经济影响，以及通过不生产成为垃圾的食品而对所需资源和投入的数量以及产生的温室气体的环境影响。

Household food waste is an acknowledged societal problem, contributing to greenhouse gas production, food insecurity, and food price inflation. In the UK, household food waste makes up 70% of all post-farm-gate food waste and was recognized by the UK Government's Michael Gove: "Nobody wants to see good food go to waste. It harms our environment, it's bad for business - and it's morally indefensible.". Although there have been studies in the past to reduce food waste, the problem has largely remained intractable until the COVID-19 lockdown.The COVID-19 lockdown has been a big contextual change in people's daily lives. However, it has resulted in positive changes in food waste-related behaviours as indicated in the reports of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and UK media. For example, UK consumers reported an increased awareness and willingness to minimise household food waste leading to a 34% reduction in food waste across 4 key products (bread, milk, potatoes, and chicken) compared to the average across 2018-2019. However, these changes may not last long with the ease of lockdown. Our research aims to harness the positive changes in food waste behaviour and investigate opportunities to sustain this change over the long term. Therefore, our project will (1) identify the factors that have affected food waste behaviours under lockdown, (2) develop, implement and evaluate interventions to support positive behaviour change, and (3) use our partnerships with WRAP and Zero Waste Scotland to disseminate the outcomes across the UK. The outcomes of this research will have positive social and economic impacts on UK food insecurity, consumers' cost savings, and food price inflation, as well as environmental impact on the amount of resources and inputs required and greenhouse gas generated, by not producing food that becomes waste