Food Waste in Academic Institutions: Testing Theory of Planned Behavior on Intention to Reduce Wastage of Food

Food waste has become a global issue, with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG -12) addressing responsible consumption and production. According to global statistics, 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted. Surprisingly, 35% of the food that goes to trash is still edible. The food waste is happening in every stage of food cycle such as from production, processing, distribution, and consumption stages. The food may get waste due to many reasons: Irresponsible production, storage, and consumption. It effects the poor people and environment also. Higher education students have major role in prevention of food wastage and providing awareness to public. But recent statistics giving alarming warning in higher education institutes. Studies revealed that around 51.3 gm to 121 gm of food waste is happening per meal in academic institutions. This study tries to acknowledge the reasons of wastage of food and intention to reduce the food waste. The researchers adopt theory of planned behavior model and some external factors to test the intentions to reduce the food wastage.