Combat food waste? Start stockpiling

Bulk offers in the supermarket, such as 1+1 free or stacking discounts, do not increase food waste. On the contrary, these types of offers appear to make consumers more aware of the risk of food wastage, making them try harder to avoid it.

This is according to a study on the effect of bulk offers in supermarkets on food waste by researchers from Tilburg University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Wageningen University and others.

Preventing food waste

Lead researcher Arjen van Lin (Department of Marketing at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management): "We see that consumers often buy more than they normally do when faced with a bulk offer, but then try to prevent the extra food from ending up in the bin. Therefore, to further reduce food waste, one of our recommendations for supermarkets is to think about interesting alternative types of "1+1 free" offers. This way, they can further encourage this conscious behaviour. For example, "1 now+1 free later" or "1 for now+1 free for in the freezer."

The study was conducted using GfK Netherlands' purchasing panel in which households buying from Albert Heijn were tracked for 9 weeks. They were given a survey after purchasing specific products (certain fruits and vegetables, and bread) at regular price or on offer 1 to2 weeks later to ask how they used the product. 

Concern 

The study showed that when consumers buy more than they normally do, they are more concerned of the risk of wastage to a greater extent. This concern drives more conscious behaviour, with consumers doing a better job of avoiding food waste. For example, by freezing a portion of their purchase.

Tilburguniversity.edu