Millennials Making a Hashtag of Food Wastage

The study, published by UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's, suggests millennials don't understand the value of the food on their plates, unlike older consumers familiar with rationing. As those aged 18 — 34 are preoccupied by the visual presentation of their food, so it can be photographed and shared on social media, they fail to plan their weekly food shops, purchasing too much and summarily throwing it away.

​While two-fifths of those aged 65+ surveyed said they never wasted food, a mere 17 percent of respondents under 35 said the same. Moreover, 55 of 18 to 34-year-olds had a "live to eat" attitude to food, caring more about pleasure than necessity. Older generations were conversely more likely to "eat to live," with lower grocery bills and reduced waste.

​Furthermore, over-55s are far more comfortable in the kitchen than their millennial counterparts, with just 18 percent wishing they knew more about managing and cooking food. In contrast, over half of millennials admitted having inadequate cooking nous, but were considerably more likely to try unusual recipes involving exotic ingredients which are rarely used more than once, in order to create aesthetically pleasing, plaudit generating social media posts.

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While the prospect of Instagram being indirectly responsible for the burgeoning of food wastage is a titillating one, Sainsbury's may well risk trivializing a serious issue in their hunt for headlines. After all, an average 88 million tons of food are wasted every year in the European Union, with associated costs estimated at US$152.3 billion — and wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue, but an environmental one.

A spokesperson for food waste reduction campaign group Wrap told Sputnik avoidable food and drink waste was driven by a diverse array of factors, including demographics and individual and group behavior. 

"The generation of food waste is complex — the factors that contribute to it are varied and differ between households. There are differences between the average levels of food waste between socio-demographic groups. On average, larger households generate less waste per person than single-occupancy households — this difference stems from single-occupancy households generating more waste from not using food before it goes off or past a date label (rather than, for example, generating more leftovers)," the spokesperson told Sputnik.

Lower levels of waste, the spokesperson added, are typically associated with various food-related behaviours including meal planning, list making, buying less of other items when purchasing special offers, use of the fridge to store apples, cooking the right amount of rice and pasta and using leftovers.