Food Waste in Iran; Time to Return to Islamic Perspective of Frugality

Abstract

UN Food and Agricultural Organisation believes that there is no balance between hunger and producing food and the world is producing more than enough food (1). It estimated that one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tones gets lost or wasted (2). Inefficiencies and losses in agricultural production and consumers' behavior all play a role (4). About consumer behavior Aktas et al. showed that Food choice motives, financial attitudes, planning routines, social relationships, food surplus and Ramadan effect on Consumers' food waste (5). Farr-Wharton et al. emphasized on food shopping as the main cause of food waste (6). Schanes et al. showed that food waste is complex and multi-faceted issue that cannot be attributed to single variables (7). Sociologically there hugely under-researched area of interest for social scientists about food waste (8). This is a qualitative study which was conducted in Yazd University between September 2018 to January 2019. Data were selected by 70 one open ended questionnaire 'Why Iranian people have food waste behavior?" In addition 2 focus group discussions were conducted among the students considering ethical consideration. Data were analyzed by conventional content analysis method.