A significant contributing factor to the high prevalence of food wastage in developed countries, particularly at the consumption level, is simply due to the fact that people can afford it. Furthermore, safe food products are readily available round the clock, with the amount stored in grocery stores, markets and restaurants increasing over the past few decades in both the USA and the EU. Combining both of these factors, buffet meals at fixed prices are offered in many restaurants, encouraging people to pile their plates with more food than they can actually consume and eventually, throwing away the excess.

To increase sales, retail stores offer promotional prices and “buy 3 for the price of 1” bargains, forcing consumers to purchase more than they require to enjoy these perceived benefits.

Jointly, food packets are growing in size with “jumbo packs” often spotted on the shelves of supermarkets.

All these external factors may contribute to increase in sales; however, they also motivate consumers to buy more than they can consume, which inevitably leads to food getting wasted as most of these items spoil before they get eaten.

A good point to note: Food wasted at the consumer level is minimal in developing countries, as reflected in the figure on the ‘Sources‘ page. Due to widespread poverty and the inaccessibility of safe and nutritious food, food wastage is unacceptable in these countries. Death from starvation is a common sight in developing countries as food is simply unavailable to them. Consumers also tend to buy smaller amounts of food each time – just enough to make meals on the day of purchase – to ensure that none of the food items spoil before they are consumed.