Students’ Behaviors, Attitudes and Self-Assessment on Food Wastage in a Tunisian University Cafeteria

The present study aimed to evaluate self-assessment, behaviors and attitudes of students toward food wastage in a Tunisian University cafeteria. An online survey based on a structured questionnaire was conducted on 162 student respondents during two weeks in January 2021. Information on awareness and attitudes toward food waste, food purchase behavior and self-estimation of food waste in the cafeteria, and recommendations to reduce food waste were collected. Most respondents were women (82%). About 47.5% use cafeteria service daily, mainly for collation (48.8%). The main reasons for this use were the proximity (57.4%), no other place to eat (24.7%) and time savings (14.2%). Food quality service and quality of food items were evaluated as good by, respectively, 42.6% and 40.6% of respondents. About 38% declared to never discard food items bought in the cafeteria. The most discarded food items were pâtés and soufflés (49%), sandwiches (48%) and pizzas (45%), whereas cookies (20%), industrial cakes (22.5%) and pastries (31%) were the least discarded. Reasons for this waste were mainly related to poor perceived sensory quality (54.9%). Interestingly, about food waste awareness, a small majority stated to usually reduce (43.7%) or avoid discarding food items (9.5%). Recommendations for improvement of the university cafeteria to reduce food waste were listed as improving taste and flavor (25.9%), quality price ratio (25.3%), atmosphere and cleanliness (18.5%), food hygiene (17.3%) and menu variation (9.9%). These preliminary findings suggest considering these factors for forming food waste reduction strategies and policies.