Browsing by Author "Panigrahi, Anna"

The purpose of this study is to determine the policies related to household food waste as well as what kind of changes has occured in it over the past decades and how these changes reflect any changes in the society. The changes related to these policies are examined by interviewing three generations from the same family and searching for similarities and differences in their household policies related to food waste. In addition, this study seeks to examine the role of food education on food behaviour. The frame of references in this study is based on the concepts of household activities, everyday management, sustainable development and food education. The study is a qualitative interview study. The data was collected by individual theme interviews. The group of interviewees consisted in total of nine persons, three generations from three different families. They were born between the years 1931-1991 and six of them were women and three men. The data was analyzed by theming. Household food waste is generally considered a negative thing that should be avoided. This study revealed that the oldest generation has the most negative relation to food waste and also produces the least. The difference is clear between the oldest and the middle generation, but decreases between the two younger generations. Changes in the society were experienced to have an impact on household food waste, especially the migration from the countryside to the cities and the creation of a so-called culture of gluttony. During Finland's independence our food economy has developed from depression and periods of shortage towards abundance. Food education was seen to play a key role in reducing household food waste. The interviewees highlighted the importance of upringing in the formation of their own food behaviour as well as for the future. The results of this study help to understand what causes can be found behind the phenomenon of food waste as well as the fact that also the social context has an impact on the production of household food waste..