Table 2.

A multi-level research agenda on household food waste and behaviour and exemplar research questions.

Underexplored influencers within levels	Exemplar questions
At the distal and proximal macro levels	⋅Do food waste interventions in workplaces influence food waste and behaviours in households? ⋅Can the food package design reduce household food waste? ⋅Does online shopping reduce food waste compared to visiting the supermarket? ⋅How can social networks be utilized to reduce waste? ⋅Learning from South Korea: how might food waste disposal costs affect household food waste patterns in other countries or cultures?
What is the influence of: ⋅Culture/place ⋅Legal and regulatory frameworks ⋅Food retailers ⋅Other external physical settings
At the household level	⋅Does household fridge or pantry size lead to more or less food waste? ⋅Do typologies of family communication and decision-making about food have an association with household food waste? ⋅How might household cohesion affect food waste? ⋅Gate-keepers vs fussy eaters: how do different roles in a household affect food waste patterns?
What is the influence of: ⋅Household food related equipment and infrastructure ⋅Group structures, dynamics and interactions?
At the individual level	⋅How much of household food provisioning is habit based? ⋅Can new food waste habits be created by implementation intentions and environmental restructuring? ⋅Can heuristics in consumer decision making and choice (optimism bias, planning fallacy, availability heuristics) be used to reduced household food waste?
What is the influence of: ⋅Unconscious psychological influences like habits and biases?
Interactions between levels	Exemplar questions
Macro and meso factor interactions	⋅How do different household types (e.g. young families, empty nesters etc.) respond to food waste interventions? ⋅Products or process? How might supermarkets support different household types to reduce food? ⋅Which type of macro level interventions work best for different household types? ⋅How do food waste norms take hold? Examining the influence of household level changes on community and social norms.
Meso and micro factor interactions	⋅How do individuals navigate food waste values and attitudes in relation to household norms around food waste? ⋅Do household food ‘gatekeepers’ influence the food waste behaviours of others in the household? What does this mean for intervention design? ⋅How do individual behaviour changes influence household social norms?
Macro and micro factor interactions	⋅To legislate or educate? How do different consumer typologies respond to different macro-level food waste interventions? ⋅How do individuals navigate food waste values and attitudes in relation to the norms within their social networks? ⋅How do external social norms influence an individual's food waste behaviours?
Macro, meso and micro factor interactions.	⋅Which household level factors block or enhance the impact of external food waste campaigns on individuals? ⋅Which factors matter? Identifying salient factors across the levels with regards to their influence on household food waste behaviours.