Analysing the Influence of Perceived Scarcity, Negative Feelings, and Status Consumption on Food Waste Among Consumers

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages: 33-36

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

https://doi.org/10.47277/JETT/9(1)36

Analysing the Influence of Perceived Scarcity,

Negative Feelings, and Status Consumption on Food

Waste Among Consumers

Muhamad Azrin Nazri *, Nor Asiah Omar *, Suhaily Mohd Ramly , Siti Ngayesah Ab Hamid

Azreen Jihan Che Mohd Hashim⁵

Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

, 4

Centre of Value Creation and Human Well-being (INSAN), Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor,

Malaysia

Faculty of Business, Accountancy and Social Sciences, Kolej Universiti Poly-Tech MARA (KUPTM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Received: 05/08/2020

Accepted: 02/10/2020

Published: 10/10/2020

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of perceived scarcity, negative feelings, and status consumption on food waste among

consumers in Malaysia. A total of 258 questionnaires were collected via convenience sampling from customers who purchased food. The

findings suggest that negative feelings and status consumption are significant and positively related to food waste. However, perceived

scarcity shows no relationship to food waste. This study indicates that consumer’s behaviors and motivations in buying food can lead to food

waste. This study provides empirical and managerial contributions to the underlying factors that influence food waste among consumers. Due

to the alarming level of food waste and limited research on consumer food waste behavior in the medium to a high-income group of countries

such as Malaysia, there is an urgent call to conduct this study.

Keywords: Food Waste, Negative Feelings, Perceived Scarcity, Status Consumption

[

5]-[6]. Many activities make consumers more likely to produce

Introduction

food waste, such as shopping in large supermarkets, shopping

infrequently, and not preparing menus or making shopping lists

In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization presented the

estimate that around ⅓ of the world’s food is lost or wasted every

year. Food waste is any food, and inedible parts of food, removed

from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed of. Wasted

food is a considerable component of the world food system

challenge [1]. Food waste can be categorised into three groups,

which are food losses, unavoidable food waste and avoidable food

waste [2].

Food is lost or discarded throughout the supply chain, from

initial production to final use by the households [1]. The USDA's

Economic Research Service (ERS) reported that 21 per cent of the

[5]-[7]. The same study also found that consumers do not generally

regard food waste as an environmental problem. Food waste is also

recognized as a major issue for global environmental, economic

and health security [7]-[8]. A major challenge that faces the

international community is to provide safe for over 9.1 billion

people by the year [9]. According to FOA (2011) report, 32 percent

of the world-produced food was lost or wasted in 2009. According

to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food waste

currently represents the single largest type of waste entering

landfills. Wasted food leads to over utilization of water and fossil

fuels and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. methane and

carbon dioxide arising from degradation of food in landfills [10].

The gross carbon footprint of lost and wasted food, excluding land

use, is measured at 3.3 billion tons of CO equivalent, according to

a recent study by the FAO.

The issue of food wastage is also prevalent in Southeast Asia

and showing significant implications for the region's food,

environmental and economic security [11]. It is estimated that 33

30 billion pounds of consumer-level food available in 2010 alone

have been thrown away [3]. Consumers dumped 244.5 billion

kilocalories per day, 789 kilocalories per capita [3]. Roughly one-

third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted

globally [4]. The most common reasons customers throw away

food are expiry dates, foods that look, smell, degust poor, mold or

too much time in the refrigerator or cupboard [5]. Fruit and

vegetables, post-prepared leftovers, bakery products, dairy

products, and eggs are the most popular food being thrown away

Corresponding author: Muhamad Azrin Nazri, Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan,

Malaysia. E-mail: muhdazrin@usim.edu.my

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages: 33-36

percent of food in the world is wasted in Southeast Asia [12].

Target [11]. There are effective measures to prevent and reduce

food waste, but in Southeast Asia they are not widely

implemented. The RSIS Center for Non-Traditional Security

conscious consumers seek self-satisfaction from the product, as

they tend to use products that have visible brand. This allows them

to gain a certain level of self-identity and association to a specific

class [25], consumers will place their desire rather than their

necessity in purchasing goods or services. This kind of purchasing

behavior link to luxury, glamour, leisure, abundance and waste

[26].

People with bad emotion are in uncontrolled condition which

will lead towards purchasing unnecessary items and tend to hoard

the particular products [27]. In addition, individual with negative

thought lingering in their minds will restrain themselves to

consume the food [28], [29]. All the negative feeling during food

consumption such as distress, feelings of shame (e.g., drawing

attention due to their manner of eating) and frustration (e.g., due to

avoiding some of their favorite foods) will let an individual leave

their food unfinished [30]. Furthermore, consumer have negative

feeling towards food waste although in short period they are like

to throw food and feel guilty afterwards [31].

Consumers portrays that scarce objects are valuable. They often

infer value in a product that has limited availability or is promoted

as being scarce [32]. A limited-quantity scarcity was on a first

come first serve basis that trigger consumer to buy immediately as

they have no clue on the stock availability [33]. A scarce product

was perceived as more desirable as customer hypothetically think

that they need the product in the future [34]. Thus, it makes the

consumers comprehend that if they did not purchase the product

right away, then they would not have any chance to get it next time.

Scarcity conditions would pursue consumers to buy the product

immediately [35]. These are the hypotheses (H1 – H3) developed

for the study. The research framework is shown on Figure 1.

(

NTS) Studies hosted the August 2012 Expert Working Group

Meeting to discuss food from Southeast Asia in connection with

these issues. This policy brief is based on the meeting's results and

presents some policy recommendations for governments in

Southeast Asia to tackle urban and rural food waste [11].

Specifically, domestic waste in Malaysia accounts is the main

contributor which is 64%. The share of industrial waste is 15%,

followed by agricultural waste and building waste and institutional

waste. It was reported that on average a household in Malaysia

throws away around 0.5-0.8kg uneaten food per day [13]. Statistics

from Malaysia's Solid Waste Corporation (SWCorp) showed that

Malaysia's food waste exceeded 15,000 tons per day in 2015 and

for that amount of food waste, the food was enough for almost 10

Million people, including 3,000 tons that were still fit for

consumption and should not have been discarded [1]. Clearly,

Malaysian solid waste contains a large amount of food waste, and

the volume has recently been estimated to hit 63.1 percent in 2008

(

Siwar, 2008) and 74 percent specifically in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's capital), which is mostly disposed of at landfills.

Generally, food waste is usually associated with behaviors such

as negligence or conscious discard decisions [14]. The behavior of

consumers in food waste may be systematically related to the

drivers of food purchasing decisions, which in turn are based on

intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of food [15]. Food waste becomes

one of the biggest concerns in this modern era, as it causes

unfavorable issues to the environment, economic and social

consequences on the sustainability of the food sector around the

globe [16]. Furthermore, food waste is also known as the removal

from food supply chain which is suitable for consumption, or due

to it was expired or spoiled because of consumer behavior itself

which involve urgency to buy, perceived scarcity or negative

feelings; whereas food loss is defined as the reduction in quantity

or quality of food [4]. Both food loss and food waste are strongly

related as decreasing each of them will help to increase food supply

to people who need food and also increase positive impact to the

environment physically, socially and economically. With millions

of people all over the world struggling to find enough food to eat

for survive, the fact that millions of tons of food are tossed out

every year can be surprising.

H1: Perceived scarcity positively influences food waste.

H2: Negative feelings positively influences food waste.

H3: Status consumption positively influences food waste.

Perceived Scarcity

The wastage of food occurs at all stages of the life cycle of food,

starting from harvesting, through manufacturing and distributing

and finally consumption, but the largest contribution to food waste

is from homes [17][18][19]. Sometimes, consumer’s behaviors and

motivations such as status consumption in buying food will make

an impact on consumer’s emotion and attitudes (anticipated regret,

utilitarian attitude, hedonic attitude). According to the literature

review, status consumption is “the motivational process by which

individuals strive to improve their social standing through the

conspicuous consumption of consumer products that confer and

symbolize status both for the individual and surrounding

significant others.” [20]. Empirical studies are still lacking despite

this growing concern about food waste behavior at the consumer

level [21][22][23].

Negative Feelings

Food Waste

Status Consumption

Figure 1: Research Framework

Literature Review and Hypotheses Development

Status consumption is the purchase, use and consumption of

products to gain status among peers and society [24]. Status-

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages: 33-36

than their necessity in purchasing goods or services that ultimately

leads to waste.

Research Methodology

A. Sampling and Research Procedure

Although this study has few significant contributions, it still has

limitations. This study has investigated only three variables and

employed cross sectional data. Thus, it is recommended for future

research to include more variables in the framework and employ a

qualitative method that may possibly generate more information

on the present study.

In this study, the data was collected using primary method which

is using questionnaire. It was done in The National University of

Malaysia (UKM). Respondents were given a self-administered

questionnaire to answer. A total of 200 valid questionnaire was

collected from the respondents and used for data analysis.

B. Research Instrument

All questions in the survey were adopted and adapted from past

studies. All items were measured using 7-point Likert scale

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Malaysia Research University

Network (MRUN) in providing the grant: EP-2019-004/

UPM.800-4/11MRUN/2019/5539140 and

(

1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=somewhat disagree,

=neutral, 5=somewhat agree, 6=agree, 7=strongly disagree).

Data Analysis

In this study food waste stands as the dependent variable and the

USIM/YTI/FEM/052002/41618 in assisting this research.

remaining variables: perceived scarcity, negative feelings, and

status consumption represent the independent variables. The

results are shown in Table 1, the value of R = 0.174, which implies

Ethical issue

Authors are aware of, and comply with, best practice in

publication ethics specifically with regard to authorship

7.4 percent of variance in food waste are likely explained by

(

avoidance of guest authorship), dual submission, manipulation of

perceived scarcity, negative feelings, and status consumption. As

indicated in Table1, status consumption, and negative feelings

have significant positive influence on the food waste. Hence

supporting H2 and H3. However, perceived scarcity is not

significantly related to food waste. Thus, H1 is not supported. On

examining the value of Beta, it could be observed that status

consumption has most crucial influence on food waste followed by

negative feelings.

This result of the research validates past studies that indicate

negative emotions lead to high food intake in response to positive

emotions [36]. Several other researchers also suggested that

sadness enhances food indulgence [37][38] and impulse buying

figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on

research ethics. Authors adhere to publication requirements that

submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere

in any language.

Competing interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that

would prejudice the impartiality of this scientific work.

Authors’ contribution

All authors of this study have a complete contribution for data

collection, data analyses and manuscript writing.

[39][40]. In addition, past studies also pointed that, as people

higher on materialism they are not only found to have more

favorable attitudes toward spending [41] but have also been linked

to wasting money on relatively unimportant possession [42].

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