Tuesday, 04 June 2019
People would rather give away unwanted food to strangers than waste it, according to research from experts at the University of Nottingham.
The largest contribution to food waste in the UK comes from homes – around 8.3million tonnes per year, which costs the consumer £12billion and contributes to approximately 3% of UK greenhouse gas emissions.
The consequences of a growing social awareness of food waste and the ethical consequences associated with it have led to a variety of alternative food provision schemes - such as mobile apps.
OLIO is a mobile app for food sharing, which aims to reduce food waste. It does this by connecting people with surplus food to those who need or wish to eat that food. The food must be edible, and it can be raw or cooked, sealed or open. It was established in 2015 and is the most successful food sharing app ever created in terms of downloads. According to OLIO’s statistics over a million people have registered and over 1,630,460 portions of food have been shared across 49 countries.
In partnership with OLIO, Dr John Harvey from Nottingham University Business School, analyzed 54913 instances of food sharing on the app between 9504 people over 10 months.
The research focused on two main questions; how do the food sharing behavioural repertoires of OLIO users vary, and how interdependent are the people sharing food as donors or recipients.
“We were interested in understanding whether most users act as donors and recipients, whether users’ exhibit consistent behavioural patterns over time and whether user interactions are based on future reciprocity.”
The analysis showed that most individuals using OLIO to share food adopt either the role of donor OR recipient, with a much lower number of members of the network engaging in both roles.
The results challenge existing theories around food sharing, such as the common belief that it is predominantly done so as a reciprocal act, and instead found that people who donated food, rarely claimed food themselves.
Dr Harvey said: “Food sharing apps such as OLIO are unusual because most of the people we give food to are normally our family, or people we know. In OLIO’s case they are complete strangers. From the research I wanted to see if reciprocity occurred, as in most social science, the act of giving is usually explained in this way. But not in this case.
“One way to explain this is because people genuinely care about food waste, and are satisfied at just giving it away to avoid waste, which is what ultimately motivates them.”
The findings of the study could have significant implications for managers and policymakers aiming to encourage, measure and understand technology assisted food sharing practices.
Dr Harvey adds: “As more food surplus becomes managed through applications such as OLIO, there is a real opportunity for policymakers to work with organisations to improve the accounting of food waste and to help identify vulnerable people experiencing food hardship.
"If OLIO can calculate a dependency index (i.e what proportion of the network are dependent on other new members of the network), this could give a profound insight into how macroeconomic policy is affecting the food consumption habits of consumers. The statistics could then be used to help inform government policy at a local and national level.”
This is just one of the topics that will be discussed at the Future Food Symposium at the University of Nottingham on 20 June in the Business School. The symposium will bring together stakeholders from business and society to discuss food waste and success stories – and map out the possibility of future collaboration across sectors.
More information can be found here.
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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