Dottorato in EUROPEAN PHD IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND STATISTICAL
STUDIES

Titolo della tesi: Three Papers about Overeating and Discarding Food

Global food waste is a pressing issue, causing economic losses and environmental damage. In 2018, 14% of globally produced food was lost before retail, and 17% was wasted during consumption. Nearly two-thirds of the latter occurred in households, making them a key target for waste reduction efforts. Despite food waste being more prevalent in developed countries, the dual burden of economic and environmental impacts poses a greater challenge for developing countries. As a result, there is an increased focus on reducing food waste in these regions. However, an elusive but potentially persistent issue arises: if storing leftovers is internalized in long-term consumption, could reduce household food waste lead to overeating when prepared food exceeds family needs? Since discarding food is unwanted, overeating to avoid food waste merely shifts the problem to a different issue. My research explicitly generalizes the conventional definition of food waste beyond merely discarded edible food to encompass overeaten food as well. The first chapter of my Ph.D. thesis establishes a conceptual framework, modeling an individual's decision-making process regarding overeating and discarding following a bite-by-bite process. Within this framework, minimizing waste yields satisfaction, while heightened overeating induces discomfort. Individuals gauge the desirability of an additional bite when full by evaluating the overall benefit. The modeling results underscore that a stronger aversion to discarding or a diminished aversion to overeating increases the possibility of implementing overeating to avoid food waste. This possibility is also contingent on the level of generalized food waste. This framework offers a pragmatic and concise approach to identifying whether an individual or a cohort is predisposed to implement overeating as a strategy to avoid food waste. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, the second chapter of my Ph.D. thesis affirms that the level of generalized food waste indeed influences the likelihood of individuals resorting to overeating to avoid food waste. Furthermore, it elucidates that the trade-off between overeating and discarding differs across food nutritional content of the consumed food. Expanding on this theme and using the same dataset as the second chapter does, the third chapter of my Ph.D. thesis introduces the interactions among household members and allows the members to have different attitudes towards discarding food. This chapter explains the phenomenon that upon becoming parents, adults exhibit a higher likelihood of being overweight or obese. In contrast to childless adults, parents, driven by the dual objectives of avoiding household food waste and preventing their children from overeating, display an increased likelihood of engaging in overeating. The three chapters of my Ph.D. thesis indicate that solely promoting the reduction of discarded edible food, while overlooking overeating, may only transform the nature of food waste instead of eradicating it. Additionally, I show that the concept of generalized food waste is an indispensable and handy tool when conducting a more comprehensive analysis of behaviors related to food waste.