A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level (2020)
Chapter: Appendix B: Literature Search Approach
Appendix B
Literature Search Approach
Two sets of literature searches were conducted (in 2019) to inform the committee’s work. The first was conducted to identify implementation strategies to reduce food waste at the consumer level. The second was done to identify reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses of drivers and strategies to intervene for consumer or household behaviors related to energy saving, recycling, water conservation, waste prevention, and diet change.
In order to obtain a more rounded set of results that accounted for differences in indexing practices and use of vocabulary in titles and abstracts, the first set was split into two groups. The first iteration explicitly included behavior-related terms and avoided prevention-related terms. The second iteration left out behavior-related terms and targeted prevention-related terms. Searches were conducted in six online databases: Agricola, Embase, Medline, ProQuest Research Library, PubMed, and Scopus. Articles were included if they were published within the last 15 years, available in English, peer-reviewed, and conducted in Europe or English-speaking countries. The search terms for both iterations are shown in Table B-1. The searches yielded 548 unduplicated articles from the first group and 234 unduplicated articles from the second group.
TABLE B-1 Search Terms Used to Identify Relevant Literature on Food Waste
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Food Waste | Domestic food waste |
| Food | |
| Food discard | |
| Food loss | |
| Food scraps | |
| Food shrink | |
| Food wastage | |
| Food waste | |
| Household food waste | |
| Leftovers | |
| Meals | |
| Plate waste | |
| Restaurant food waste | |
| School food waste | |
| Surplus food | |
| Wasted food | |
| Consumer Behavior | Consumer |
| Customer | |
| Diner | |
| End user | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Household | |
| Shopper | |
| Attitude | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Intervention | |
| Food Waste Reduction | Avoid |
| Avoidance | |
| Compost | |
| Control | |
| Decrease | |
| Doggy bag | |
| Lower | |
| Minimization | |
| Minimize | |
| Prevent | |
| Prevention | |
| Reduce | |
| Reduction |
The second set of searches, which targeted other efforts to change consumer or household behaviors, was also conducted in two parts. The first focused on strategies to promote energy saving and recycling behaviors. The second was directed at strategies to promote energy saving, recycling, water use conservation, waste prevention behaviors, and diet change, but it was limited to systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Both sets of searches were conducted in ProQuest Research Library, PubMed, and Scopus. The first search on energy-saving behaviors included papers that were published within the last 15 years, and it was limited to reviews, including, but not limited to, systematic reviews from Europe and English-speaking countries. The second search used the same terms, but it was restricted to systematic reviews and meta-analyses that had been published in English since 2000. Search terms are presented in Table B-2. The first search yielded 380 unduplicated studies; the second search yielded 406 unduplicated studies.
TABLE B-2 Search Terms Used to Identify Relevant Literature on Energy-Saving and Recycling Behaviors
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Energy-Saving Behaviors | Attitudes |
| Behavior modification | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Choice behavior | |
| Consumer | |
| Consumer attitudes | |
| Consumer behavior | |
| Customer | |
| Decision making | |
| Demand side management | |
| Domestic | |
| Efficient energy use | |
| End user | |
| Energy conservation | |
| Energy efficiency | |
| Energy saving | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Home | |
| Household | |
| Imitative behavior | |
| Intention | |
| Shopper | |
| User behavior |
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Recycling Behaviors | Attitude |
| Behavior modification | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Choice behavior | |
| Consumer | |
| Consumer attitudes | |
| Consumer behavior | |
| Customer | |
| Decision making | |
| Domestic | |
| Efficient energy use | |
| End users | |
| Energy conservation | |
| Energy efficiency | |
| Energy saving | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Home | |
| Home recycling | |
| Household | |
| Household recycling | |
| Imitative behavior | |
| Intention | |
| Recycling | |
| Shopper | |
| User behavior |
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Water Consumption and Water Use Conservation Behaviors | Attitudes |
| Behavior modification | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Choice behavior | |
| Consumer | |
| Consumer attitudes | |
| Consumer behavior | |
| Customers | |
| Decision making | |
| Domestic | |
| End users | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Home | |
| Household | |
| Imitative behavior | |
| Intention | |
| Residential water conservation | |
| Residential water use | |
| Shopper | |
| User behavior | |
| Wasting water | |
| Water conservation | |
| Water consumption | |
| Water use conservation | |
| Water wasting |
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Waste Prevention Behaviors | Attitude |
| Behavior modification | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Choice behavior | |
| Consumer | |
| Consumer attitudes | |
| Consumer behavior | |
| Customer | |
| Decision making | |
| Domestic | |
| End users | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Home | |
| Households | |
| Imitative behavior | |
| Intention | |
| Preventing waste | |
| Reduce waste | |
| Reducing waste | |
| Shopper | |
| User behavior | |
| Waste minimization | |
| Waste prevention | |
| Waste reduction |
| Topic | Search Terms |
|---|---|
| Diet Change Behaviors | Attitude |
| Behavior modification | |
| Behavioral change | |
| Behavioral modification | |
| Changing diet | |
| Choice behavior | |
| Consumer | |
| Consumer attitudes | |
| Consumer behavior | |
| Customer | |
| Decision making | |
| Diet change | |
| Diet habits | |
| Dietary habits | |
| Domestic | |
| Eating behavior | |
| Eating habits | |
| End user | |
| Final consumer | |
| Food habits | |
| Food policy | |
| Food purchaser | |
| Home | |
| Household | |
| Imitative behavior | |
| Intention | |
| Nutrition policy | |
| Shopper | |
| User behavior |
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