LAUSR

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the role of eco-design packaging in consumer food waste and tests the effects of consumers’ perceptions of eco-design packaging (redesigned visual and/or verbal attributes) on their intentions to avoid wasting food. The authors posit that eco-design packaging can lead to food waste reduction through its physical, social, and commercial functions. The authors carried out two 2 (visual: resealable vs. nonresealable) × 2 (verbal: sustainable cues present vs. absent) between-subject experiments of two food products. The results show that eco-design packaging can help reduce consumer food waste: (1) consumers are more sensitive to improvements related to visual rather than verbal attributes of packaging; (2) consumers’ food waste decisions seem to be more strongly affected by instrumental functions (e.g., conservation product quality and communication guidance for storage) than social (e.g., pollution related to packaging) and commercial functions (e.g., category identification); and (3) health consciousness has mediated moderating effects on these relationships. This research contributes to the literature by determining underlying mechanisms of the effects of eco-design packaging on consumer food waste. This work can be embedded into the transformative consumer research movement to maximize social awareness, use, and benefits.