Consumer habits in Cyprus in relation to buying, preserving and consuming food are improving, according to the second FoodPrint pan-Cypriot food waste survey. Compared to a similar survey conducted 2 years ago, the improvement concerns, among others, feelings (remorse), perception of environmental costs and loss of money when throwing away food, while their behaviour is influenced by many exogenous factors, such as punctuality and pandemic. However, Cypriots still believe that they have sufficiency and do not manage leftovers properly. They also need more knowledge and awareness of how they assess the costs they cause by wasting food.
These are some of the most important findings of the 2nd nationwide survey as part of the FoodPrint campaign that puts the spotlight on the burning issue of food waste. The first survey was conducted at the end of 2020, when the FoodPrint campaign, a project co-funded by the European Union under the Life+ programme, started.

The presentation of the survey was made at an online event organised on Friday, 24 June 2022, by Kyriakos Parpounas, CEO, Parpounas Sustainability Consultants, a partner in the FoodPrint campaign. The survey on food waste in Cyprus was on the topic: “Household organic waste: Food purchasing and management habits in Cypriot households”. It was conducted in the period 11 – 13 May 2022 using the CAWI (Computer Aided Web Interviewing) methodology.

Survey identity

A total of 551 people aged 18 years and older who are either responsible for food purchases or food preparation in their household were covered. The geographical distribution of the sample corresponds to the actual distribution of the population.
The FoodPrint campaign is led – coordinated by the “Dias” complex and the partnership is completed by the Department of Environment, OEB, the communication consultants Opinion & Action and Parpounas Consultants and the NGO “Friends of the Earth” (Cyprus).

List for supermarkets

When buying and consuming food, the most common behaviours of Cypriot consumers are checking the expiry date of food (95% of participants responded positively), paying attention to how food is stored (90%) and making a list before visiting supermarkets (89%). All 3 of these habits help to reduce food waste. The least common behaviors are using leftover food to prepare other meals (52%) and discarding old food when buying fresh (31%). 63% say they only buy as much as they need and 65% say they like to stock up at home. Of these, 33% state both at the same time. We see 2 habits that under normal circumstances should cancel each other out, but there may be a perception that stockpiling at home is necessary.

We buy more…

Most households tend to buy more food than they need. When asked why they buy more food than they need, most respondents said they prefer to stock up in case something happens (43% responded positively), feel secure when there is a lot of food in the house (34%) and want to be prepared for visitors at home (33%). Only 26% said they do not buy more than they need.
Summary presentation

ANALYSIS
More information: Maria Takka | tel. 99712163 | Email: [email protected]