Food waste is a global challenge that raises many questions about the reasons and prevalence of this phenomenon in all sectors of the economy. The youth is regarded as a consumer group, which is the most prone to food waste. This paper aims to understand their food waste intentions to support tailored policies for policymakers, retailers, and other market actors. We applied the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to find the relevant variables that affect the youth’s intention not to waste food. Besides creating a general model, we divided the sample into segments differing in respondents’ intentions to avoid food waste and specific socioeconomic characteristics. The data confirm significant differences between young women and men from urban and rural areas. Each of the segments was characterized by specific latent variables, influencing the intentions to avoid food waste. This segmentation allowed for developing policy recommendations that were tailored to each segment. It is a unique approach to differentiate the youth to unveil their specific food-waste intentions. Based on the above, we conclude that segmenting is a useful approach to the general TPB model, allowing for interesting insights. A fine segmentation is also a milestone to develop tailored policies, interventions, and communication on food waste reduction in rural and urban areas.

Although the pandemic phenomenon is not the first of its kind in human history, the common feature of COVID-19 is its rapid impact on the global economy. The challenge for the national economy on the world stage is to maintain a continuous food supply. The scientific purpose of the study is to report, analyze and evaluate backgrounds, causes of instabilities and their effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply and demand side of the meat market in the United States of America, China and Russia. The practical purpose of the study is to present implemented measures and recommendations on how to return to meat market equilibrium. In the theoretical part of the study, the revised public source of information coming from well-known organizations such as: EC, FAO, OECD, and WB, are used. In the practical part of the manuscript, qualitative research on the People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, and the United States of America, along with semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts and Ishikawa diagram are presented. The primary data come from authors’ own research and collection of multiple sources. The article indicates the use of qualitative systematic review, supported by a creation of a prototype of the issues of maintaining continuity of the food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic in the secondary sources, intensified by a keyword search. The results of the research are diverse and oriented toward the needs of the analyzed meat markets. In the case of the People’s Republic of China, the solution is to develop a system of subsidies and preferential rates for the use of rail transport in exports. In the case of Russia, the solution is to provide support to the meat and poultry farmers for cold storage of slaughtered animals. In the case of the USA, the solution is to develop technical and technological facilities in order to speed up the supply chain between local livestock with meat and poultry farmers. Moreover, the outcomes indicate that sustainability of the food supply chain needs well-thought-out support on agri-food supply production.

The study explores the motivation of consumers to join and participate in new product co‐creation, distinguishing between recruitment before, retainment during and finalizing of a co‐creation project. The research is based on follow‐up interviews with participants in a project covering the initial stages of new food product development (i.e., idea generation, idea screening and concept development) involving older consumers and carried out in a physical environment. Different motivation factors were deemed important by consumers before, during and at the closure of the project. Consumers joined the project motivated by curiosity and desire to meet new people. While performing the creative tasks, they continued the engagement due to the positive anticipation and enjoyment of new activities, as well as positive feedback loops. At the closure of the project, the usefulness of outcomes and the received recognition became important and strengthened the perceived creative self‐efficacy of participants. The findings offer useful recommendations for organizers of co‐creation, enabling the recruitment and retainment of consumers who could successfully deliver creative outputs and complete the project. The study offers novel insights relevant to participatory innovations looking at the temporal dimension of motivation to co‐create and highlights the dynamic changes in salience of the motivation factors.

Research background: The great importance of food consumption for the sustainability of food systems means that active public policy in this area can have a lot of positive effects. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to present the challenges facing the agri-food sector and to study consumer attitudes towards seasonal and organic food, local food, urban agriculture, food waste and meat consumption, carbon footprints and how these attitudes relate to the acceptance of public policy tools (a tax on junk food, a green public procurement, a deposit on plastic bottles, a tax-free donation of food to public benefit organisations, a fee for wasted food for large retailers) that could transform food distribution and consumption. Research methodology: cardinality tables and interdependence analysis using Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient Results: The study revealed that most respondents buy seasonal food when possible and limit meat consumption to some extent. They are rarely influenced by the impact of food on the climate. Most people are in favour of offering dishes based on local food in public institutions with catering (hospitals, schools, prisons, etc.). Most respondents were negative about gardening for food production. Involvement in local food was associated with a higher acceptance for green public procurement and higher VAT on junk food. Novelty: Both the range of considered policy instruments and the analysis of their acceptance in the context of selected behaviours and attitudes have not been previously studied and make up a new area of inquiry essential in the debate on sustainable food consumption.

This research article aims to investigate green public procurement as a tool for sustainable and secure food policy on the example of Poland. The practical objective of the study is to present the application of an analyzed wide range policy tool supporting sustainable food consumption in Poland. First, the systematic literature review of regulatory and market-based tools with an overview on policy rationale was carried out. Second, to assess consumers’ preferences on green public procurement, the exploratory survey with CAWI method in period from 1.01 to 31.03.2022 was conducted. Third, to quantify the survey results, one-way ANOVA analysis was applied. Fourth, to deepen only statistically significant dependencies between customers and green public procurement, Cluster Analysis was used. There are plenty interesting and applicative findings from the study. In a short time-horizon, the results show that there is a growing interest in market-based instruments on the food market expressed by consumers. Moreover, the consumers favor those that are less coercive and do not directly affect their freedom of food choice. The study found a high degree of match between green public procurement and established consumer clusters, which can be applied by state authorities in a long-time horizon.

The purpose is to assess the usability of a sustainable and environmentally friendly food policy tool in Poland in 2022. First, the systematic literature review of regulatory and market-based tools was carried out. Second, interviews with food consumers registered in the municipality of Poznań were conducted. Third, the assessment of the usage of a «higher» VAT tax rate on junk food using one-way ANOVA analysis was examined. In the theoretical part, methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and graphical transposition of data were used. In the practical part, quantitative methods like the CAWI questionnaire and ANOVA analysis, along with qualitative methods like IDI interviews and case studies, were used. The study shows that the majority of the respondents who do everyday shopping and make decisions on preparation and consumption of food at home are women. Females were characterised by statistically significant social acceptance of a «higher» VAT tax rate.