2026-09-23T18:12:14Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/124506 2026-01-14 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14781 com_2142_5130 com_2142_687 com_2142_397

Learning what works: A mixed methods study of American self-identified food conservers Balto, Gwendoline 2024-04-21 Household Food Waste Positive Deviance Nutrition Security Food Resource Management Self-determination Theory Prescott, Melissa P Stasiewicz, Matt Ellison, Brenna 2024-05 application/pdf en text Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2026-05-01 The student, Gwendoline Balto, accepted the attached license on 2024-04-06 at 10:44. The student, Gwendoline Balto, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2024-04-06 at 10:53. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2024-04-21 at 17:16. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20317 on 2024-09-16 at 00:43:09 Household food waste is the top contributor to the total waste problem in developing countries, rendering destructive consequences to the environment, economy and human society. Therefore, reducing and preventing household food waste is crucial for global sustainability and nutrition security. While researcher and policymakers focus on addressing the causal factors of household food waste, there is also much to learn from the significant number of American consumers that are proactive in reducing food waste. This mixed-methods study employed a positive deviance inquiry and a self-determination theory framework to explore the strategies, motivations and barriers of self-identified food conservers through virtual focus groups and online survey responses. The study found that conservers used a variety of proactive waste mitigation and adaptive recovery measures throughout each food management phase. They also reported a range of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to reduce food waste as well as barriers that were deemed manageable or preventable. The study revealed that conservers experienced strong fulfillment of autonomy and competence in the food conservation space but weak fulfillment of relatedness, corresponding to the range of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation qualities. The findings of this study highlight the opportunity to leverage positive deviance inquiry to identify and disseminate the effective elements, strategies and skills of successful food conservers to reduce household food waste in non-conserver households. Text eng https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124506 Copyright 2024 Gwendoline Balto M.S. Thesis Food Science & Human Nutrition University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Food Science & Human Nutrition