The determinants of consumer engagement in restaurant food waste mitigation in Poland: An exploratory study

The growing magnitude of restaurant food waste undermines the environmental sustainability of the global sector of food service provision. The challenge of restaurant food waste is of particular concern for transitional and developing economies where food consumption out of home is becoming increasingly popular. In these markets, a large share of restaurant food waste comes from customer plates, which highlights changes to consumer behaviour as an important mitigation opportunity. Little is however known about how these behavioural changes can be activated and subsequently reinforced. This study explores the prerequisites of consumer involvement in mitigating restaurant food waste in Poland, a transitional economy in East-Central Europe. It tests the role of such prerequisites of pro-environmental consumer behaviour as public environmental knowledge, environmental concern, anticipated regret and pro-environmental behaviour at home in shaping positive customer attitudes towards the need to mitigate restaurant food waste with a subsequent trigger of behavioural intentions to engage in mitigation. The study offers policy and management recommendations on how these behavioural intentions can be reinforced.