Vanity and food waste: Empirical evidence from China

• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Author: Li Gao,Yingdan Mei,Xiaohan Yang,Congyu Zhao,Daimeng Li
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12369

SPECIAL ISSUE

Vanity and food waste: Empirical evidence

from China

Li Gao

1

| Yingdan Mei

1

| Xiaohan Yang

2

| Congyu Zhao

3

|

Daimeng Li

4

1

School of Economics and Management,

China University of Petroleum-Beijing,

Beijing, China

2

Institutes of Science and Development,

University of Chinese Academy of

Sciences, Beijing, China

3

School of International Trade and

Economics, University of International

Business and Economics, Beijing,

China

4

Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute,

Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China

Correspondence

Yingdan Mei, School of Economics and

Management, China University of

Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing, China.

Email: meiyingdan@vip.sina.com

Funding information

National Natural Science Foundation of

China, Grant/Award Number: 71803192

Abstract

Food waste has gained tremendous attention in recent

years, not only because food resources are becoming

scarce, but also the increasingly awareness of food

saving. This research aims to examine how vanity, a

psychological factor, affects at-home and outdoor food

waste behaviors in China. The data we use is based on

a face-to-face questionnaire interview in three prov-

inces of China through a stratified sampling method

and eventually, 305 valid questionnaires are acquired.

It has been found that there is a significantly positive

relationship between food waste and vanity, which is

robust with various specifications.

KEYWORDS

food waste, vanity, China

1|INTRODUCTION

Food loss and waste refers to the reduction of food in the subsequent stages of the food supply

chain for human consumption which can occur from initial production to final household con-

sumption (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], 2014). Food waste

is not only an ineffective use of resources, but also an indirect acceleration of climate change.

As proposed by Vermeulen et al. (2012), food production accounts for 29% of the total green-

house gas emissions from human activities, twice the United Nations estimate of greenhouse

gas emissions from farming. Besides, the total amount of food waste in the world was up to 1.3

Received: 12 September 2019 Revised: 17 November 2020 Accepted: 10 March 2021

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12369

© 2021 American Council on Consumer Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2021;55:1211–1225. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 1211