Consumer perceptions and attitudes of the circular economy and food by-products

Sousa, Pedro Manuel de; Moreira, Maria João; Moura, Ana Pinto de; Cunha, Luís Miguel

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/13152

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
SousaMonteiroMouraCunha2022.pdf		1.48 MB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Sousa, Pedro Manuel de

Moreira, Maria João

Moura, Ana Pinto de

Cunha, Luís Miguel

Abstract(s)

According to FAO, one-third of all edible food produced for human consumption is wasted or otherwise lost from the food chain per year, or about 1.3 billion tonnes. In Europe, the amount of industrial food waste or loss varies between 19% and 39% of the total food loss in the food supply chains. As a result, the adoption of a circular economy policy has received special attention from the agrifood industries, allowing for the creation and development of new food products made of by-products that would otherwise be wasted or used for secondary applications. The aim of this research is twofold: i) to understand the way consumers perceived the circular economy and food products from the circular economy, and ii) to evaluate attitudes towards the circular economy. For this, a mixed methodology was applied free word association methodology was applied to evaluate consumers’ conceptualization of the circular economy and the use of by-products as foods. Data were analysed by grouping the responses into exclusive and exhaustive categories, and a correspondence analysis was also performed to originate perceptual maps. Additionally, a questionnaire was designed to evaluate major concepts and attitudes correlated with the circular economy. Data were reduced by principal component analysis (PCA), and participants were grouped through clustering. Results showed that consumers understand the circular economy as related mainly to Sustainability, Economy, and Circularity dimensions. Participants had great difficulty identifying the by-products used as foods or as food ingredients. Four groups were identified based on the associations to the six principal components originated by the PCA. However, the results highlighted a very low association with all clusters of the Food Valorisation dimension within the concept of the circular economy, and also a lack of a clear understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards food products from the circular economy.

Keywords

By-products Consumer Exploratory study Food

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/13152

Citation

Sousa, P. M. R., Moreira, M. J., Moura, A. P. & Cunha, L.M. (2022, 21-22 julho). Consumer perceptions and attitudes of the circular economy and food by-products. Book of Abstracts: Smart and Circular Agriculture towards Sustainability Congress 2022 (p. 49). Porto, Portugal (ISBN: 978-989-33-3567-3; https://scas2022.com/).