2.1. Food security⊆Household Management
Preceding research has highlighted that food security always initiate at the household level and can be termed as managed process which requires rigorous efforts to muddle through an inadequate supply of food and resources to acquire food. This process has observable set of stages which leads to increase in food security (Wehler et al., 1992; Radimer et al.,1990). At the preliminary level, household consumers experience anxiety concerning their food situation, and then most of the time adjustment was evident in their budget expenditure which had direct impact on their food management. In the secondary level, adults at middle age lessen their food intake, but start protecting their children’s food intake. In the final level, the children also start experiencing reduction in food intake which results in sharp decline of food security in household consumers. This has been evident in one of the survey being conducted by (Blumberg et al., 1999)
In fact, most of the studies have resulted in building positive associations between food security & household program participation, which sometimes are treated biased. Even health shocks have direct linkage to food security which again leads to adverse economic outcomes of individual consumer. The study on elderly consumers by (Smith, 1999) highlighted the probable significance of health shocks as a determinant of food security, another study conducted by (Corman et al. 2014) found no relationship between infant health shocks and their family food security, but particularly low income consumers with disabilities cash strapped public assistance program, do have their count in food security. Moreover, meager studies provide well-built evidence of causal effects like nonparametric methods where (Gundersen and Kreider 2009) applied these methods to substantiate food insecurity adverse impact on children’s obesity & health condition, and inferred that past approximation of adverse impact of food insecurity on health were downward biased.
2.2. Food waste an integral part of food security
Developed nations are critically facing issues related to food waste; countries like US have millions of consumer facing this hardship and can be considered as pointer of well-being. Both adult consumer and children living in households are at amplified risk of food security which could be termed as food waste and it has lead to physical health issues such as anemia & asthma, mind and behavioral issues among consumers (Gundersen et al., 2011).
Garg et al. (2015) collected data from birth cohort, having association with early childhood longitudinal study where it was evident that gloominess in mothers with 9 month old children, was responsible for 50% higher food security that prolongs for the duration of 15 months and has direct impact on food waste. (Nayyar, 2018) identified that products with resealable packaging are highly preferred in comparison to non sealable packaging and it has been evident resealable packaged products are higher in food quantity, so it may lead to food waste if stored for longer duration.
2.3. Food waste Vs Mental health
Numerous researches catered by (Carter et al. (2011); Casey et al. (2004) and Siefert et al. (2000) ) have established positive relations between food waste & mental illness by using different datasets with different depression measures. Even Heflin and Ziliak, (2008) evaluated an individual preset effect approach and originated some indication, which established sufficient verdict where emotional distress might be the foundation of food waste. Dahal and Fertig (2013) developed the casualty between spending behavior & mental illness which resulted in forecast of women hefty expenses on variety of consumer goods (food waste) which has direct impact on their mental health problems.
For low-income group households, this situation might differ as they are not able to meet their expenses of food at some moment of time due to meager earnings in their budget cycle. We have come across of numerous studies that have explicitly tried to calculate mental illness effects on food waste which are causal in nature, despite being proved that the two have correlation, this current research tried to incorporate all possible reasons which directly or indirectly impact the amount of food waste among consumers.
2.4. Gap
This research has attempted to address the gap by estimating the socio-economic indicators which seems to have been ignored in previous researches while formalizing the attributes due to which food waste occurs. The hypothesized aspects, which will not get touched in this research are related to quality testing of ingredients which are used in making food and seems to be infeasible, as it require some sort of laboratory oriented results.
2.5. Objectives Framed
The intent of this research was to explore the insight characteristics of consumer related to food waste at home. The consumer characteristics here focused on consumer (socio-economic indicators) demographics and lifestyle that include attributes like family size, consumer profession, gender, ecommerce coupons, health awareness, visiting shopping malls that impact the level of food security in their routine life. More specifically, the research objectives to be explored in this current research are having linkage with the above said attributes of consumers.
2.6. HYPOTHESIS
HO1: Food waste at acquisition phase of food procurement has no relationship with shopping routine of consumers.
HO2: Food waste at acquisition phase of food procurement has no relationship with household size of consumers.
HO3: Food waste at storage phase of food procurement has no relationship with household size of consumers.
HO4: Food waste at storage phase of food procurement has no relationship with professional qualification of consumers.
HO5: Food waste at storage phase of food procurement has no relationship with age of consumers.
HO6: Consumerfood waste at preparation phase has no relationship with household size of consumers.
HO7: Consumerfood waste at preparation phase has no relationship professional qualification of consumers.
HO8: Consumer food waste at acquisition, storage & preparation has no relationship with gender having e-commerce benefits shared by corporate.