Consumer-Related Antecedents of Waste Behavior in Online Food Ordering: A Study among Young Adults in China

Food waste in the catering industry currently accounts for almost half of the total food waste in China and entails a large amount of land, water, and labor costs, in addition to the carbon footprint’s impacts on climate change. Under the background of increasing food consumption and waste from online catering, this study investigates the factors influencing the food waste behaviors (FW) of online food ordering in China and provides policy recommendations for food waste reduction. Using survey data from 482 consumers, we constructed a theoretical framework and examined the influence path of each factor using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a bootstrap test. The results showed that young consumers without farming experience and females wasted more on ordering food online. The more frequently the consumer ordered, the more they wasted. The level of consumers’ perceived behavioral control (PBC) was found to be lower than other factors, indicating that it was difficult for consumers to reduce food waste. Attitudes toward behavior (ATT), subjective norm (SN), PBC, and price consciousness (PC) were all positively related to behavioral intention to reduce food waste (BI). PBC and BI were negatively related to FW, and over-consumption behavior (OC) was positively related to FW. BI had a mediating effect on the paths of ATT, PBC, and PC to FW, but the pathway through which PC influenced FW was primarily through BI or PBC, not OC. In our research, BI had no mediating effect between SN and FW. Ultimately, our findings inform some policy recommendations to help nations, restaurants, food-ordering platforms, and consumers reduce waste.