Food Waste Drivers in Croatian Households

A survey was conducted with the aim of analysing the knowledge and act of the Croatian population regarding food waste. Nearly half (48%) of the respondents reported that the main culprit in household food wastage was preparation of excessive amounts of food for meals, while, for one third of the respondents, in second place as a reason for occurrence of food waste was the purchasing of an excessive amount of food (28.5%). Respondents were also asked to assess what activities they conduct to reduce food waste in their households. Most respondents (34.8%) stated that they feed the dog or cat, while 27.6% store leftovers in the freezer. Almost a third of the respondents (27.6%) discard leftovers from the meal in the bin without any further use. Most respondents regard the discarding of food to be a financial loss to the household (68.1%) and to affect the environment negatively (63.1%), and most of them discard food when they suspect it is unsafe (54.3%). Answers to the question of differentiating date tags on foods showed that 36.8% of respondents do not understand the labels on food packaging. Only 13.8% of respondents reported having organized collection of bio-waste at their place of residence.