The Feasibility of Household Food Waste Reduction in Finland: Insights From Five Consumer Profiles

We apply a household production framework to analyse how changes in cooking skills, waste‐abatement costs and wage rates influence the food waste behaviour of five consumer profiles in Finland. We find that achieving a given reduction in food waste through skill‐enhancing interventions induces larger behavioural adjustments than equivalent reductions in waste‐abatement costs. Higher wage rates, however, counteract efforts to decrease household food waste. Lowering abatement costs at the food preparation stage yields a greater overall reduction in waste than targeting the consumption stage. Our findings indicate that uniform, skill‐based interventions are unlikely to be sustainable without complementary structural support tailored to specific consumer groups. Accordingly, policy measures should combine skill development with targeted reductions in the costs of preventing food waste.