About the Food Waste Collaborative
The Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative is a collection of researchers, practitioners, and students working together to promote the reduction and redirection of food waste as an integral part of a healthy and sustainable food system. In addition to conducting research, the Collaborative currently offers consultation on implementation and evaluation of projects focused on food waste reduction and redirection efforts at the consumer and household level within Ohio State University and across the state of Ohio.
The initial funding for The Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative comes from the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT) Discovery Theme, which has since been discontinued by the University.
Our Mission
The Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative promotes the reduction and redirection of food waste as an integral part of a healthy and sustainable food system.
OSU/RECIPES National Household Food Waste Tracking Survey Dashboard
Research Findings
- Li, R. “California’s Mandatory Food Scrap Segregation and Recycling Bill: Estimating the Impact of SB 1383 on Household Food Waste Generation,” Working Paper (not yet peer-reviewed).
- Xu, L., Li, R., and Roe, B.E., 2024. “Frozen Food Purchasing and Home Freezer Use: Associations with Household Food Waste.” British Food Journal, 126 (12), 4260-4276.
- Adjapong, E.S., K.E. Bender, S. Schaefer, B.E. Roe. 2024. “School and meal characteristics associated with plate waste in K-12 cafeterias in the United States,” PLOS One, December 27, 2024.
- Mansouri, J., B.E. Roe. 2024. “Changes in Food Waste among a Sample of U.S. Consumers after Beginning Anti-Obesity Medication.” Nutrients 16(19), 3274.
- Li, R. and B.E. Roe. 2024. “Segmenting U.S. Consumers by Food Waste Attitudes and Behaviors: Opportunities for Targeting Reduction Interventions,” Sustainable Production and Consumption 45(March):348-358.
- Companion Communications Planning Resource Guide: “OSU Consumer FW Reduction Communications Resource accessible“
- Badiger, A., T. Katz, C.T. Simons & B.E. Roe. 2023. When Considering Whether to Waste Food, Consumers Focus Attention on Food Label Dates Rather than Phrases,” Waste Management 168(1 August): 230-234.
- Li, R., Y. Shu, K.E. Bender, & B.E. Roe. (2023). “Household Food Waste Trending Upwards in the United States: Insights from a National Tracking Survey,” Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
- Shu, Y., Booker, A., Karetny, J., O’Keefe, K., Rees, K., Schroder, L., & Roe, B. E. (2023). “Evaluation of a Community-Based Food Waste Campaign Using a National Control Group.” Waste Management, 160, 101-111.
- Qi, D. R. Li, J. Penn, B. Houghtaling, W. Prinyawiwatkul, B.E. Roe. (2022). “Nudging Greater Vegetable Intake and Less Food Waste: A Field Experiment,” Food Policy 112(October):102369
- Amicarelli, V., B.E. Roe, and C. Bux. (2022) “Measuring Food Loss and Waste Costs in the Italian Potato Chip Industry using Material Flow Cost Accounting,” Agriculture 12(523)
- Qi, D., J. Apolzan, R. Li, B.E. Roe and C.K. Martin. (2022) “Learning about our Vices from Devices: A Model of Individual Learning with an Application to Consumer Food Waste,” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
- Babbitt, C.W., Neff, R., Roe, B.E., Siddiqui, S., Chavis, C., Trabold, T. (2022). “Transforming Wasted Food Requires Systemic and Sustainable Infrastructure Innovations,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 54, 101151.
- Roe, BE, D Qi, RA Beyl, KE Neubig, JW Apolzan, CK Martin. (2022) “A Randomized Controlled Trial to Address Consumer Food Waste with a Technology-aided Tailored Sustainability Intervention,” Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 179, 106121.
- Qi, Danyi, Jerrod Penn, Ran Li, and Brian E. Roe (2022). “Winning Ugly: Profit Maximizing Marketing Strategies for Ugly Foods.” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 64, 102834.
- Bender, K.E., A. Badiger, B.E. Roe, Y. Shu, D. Qi. (2021) “Consumer Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An analysis of food purchasing and management behaviors in U.S. households through the lens of food system resilience,” Socio-Economic Planning Sciences.
- Shu, Y., Roe, B. E., & Bender, K. (2021) “Adapting, Refining and Expanding a Validated Questionnaire to Measure Food Waste in US Households.” MethodsX, 8, 101377.
- Roe, Brian E. (2021) “Progress and Challenges in Empirical Food Waste Research: A Commentary on ‘Estimating Food Waste as Household Production Inefficiency,’ and ‘Household Food Waste and Inefficiencies in Food Production.’” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 103(1):22-25.
- Roe, Brian E., Kathryn Bender, and Danyi Qi. (2020) “The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Food Waste,” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 43(1): 401-411.
- Roe, Brian E., Danyi Qi, John W. Apolzan, and Corby K. Martin (2020). “Selection, Intake, and Plate Waste Patterns of Leftover Food Items From a Pilot Study with U.S. Consumers,” PLOS ONE, 15(9), e0238050
- Qi, Danyi, John Apolzan, Ran Li and Brian E. Roe. (2020) “Unpacking the Decline in Food Waste Measured in Chinese Households from 1991 to 2009.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 160(Sep): 104893.
- Qi, Danyi, Lai, Wangyang & Roe, Brian E. (2020) “Food Waste Declined More in Rural Chinese Households with Livestock.” Food Policy.
- Roe, Brian E., Danyi Qi, Robbie A. Beyl, Karissa E. Neubig, Corby K. Martin & John W. Apolzan. (2020). “The Validity, Time Burden, and User Satisfaction of the FoodImageTM Smartphone App for Food Waste Measurement Versus Diaries: A Randomized Crossover Trial.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 160(Sep): 104858.
- Roe, Brian E., Danyi Qi and Kathryn Bender. (2020) “Some Issues in the Ethics of Food Waste.” Physiology & Behavior 219 (May 15): 112860.
- Roe, Brian E., Danyi Qi, Kathryn Bender and Julia Hilty. (2019). “Industry versus Government Regulation of Food Date Labels: Observed Adherence to Industry-Endorsed Phrases.” Sustainability 11(24): 7183.
- Davenport, Megan, Danyi Qi and Brian E. Roe. (2019). “Food-related routines, product characteristics, and household food waste in the United States: A refrigerator-based pilot study,” Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 150(November):104440.
- Claudia Hitaj, Fred Kuchler, Travis Minor, Sharon Raszap Skorbiansky, Brian Roe, and Suzanne Thornsbury. (2019) “Exploring Food Loss from Farm-to-Retail in the Produce Industry.” Choices. Quarter 1.
- Roe, Brian E., John W. Apolzan, Danyi Qi, H. Raymond Allen, and Corby K. Martin. (2018) “Plate waste of adults in the United States measured in free-living conditions,” PLOS ONE. 13(2):e0191813
- Roe, Brian E., Phinney, David M., Simons, Christopher T., Badiger, Aishwarya S., Bender, Kathryn E., and Heldman, Dennis R. (2018) “Discard Intentions are Lower for Milk Presented in Containers without Date Labels,” Food Quality and Preference 66, 13-18.
- Qi, Danyi and Brian E. Roe (2017). “Foodservice Composting Crowds Out Consumer Food Waste Reduction Behavior in a Dining Experiment,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 99(5), 1159-1171.
- Qi, Danyi, and Roe, Brian E. (2016). “Household Food Waste: Multivariate Regression and Principal Components Analyses of Awareness and Attitudes among U.S. Consumers,” PLOS ONE. July 21.
Webinars
- “Reducing Waste in K-12 School Lunch“
- “Household Food Waste Taxes: Findings from South Korea, Lessons for the U.S.“
- “Household Food Waste Reduction: Tales and Tips from the Front Lines.”
- “Insights from the RECIPES National Household Food Waste Tracking Survey.”
Leadership
Brian Roe is the director of The Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative. Dr. Roe is the VanBuren Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State University. He actively advises several governmental and non-governmental agencies concerning food waste policy and measurement issues.
Roe attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison where he received a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics and was named as part of the 1990 Truman Scholar class. Roe went on to receive a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland. Prior to his employment at Ohio State, Roe worked on policy issues surrounding food safety and health information disclosure as a Staff Fellow at the US Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC.
Since arriving at Ohio State in 1998, Roe has worked broadly in the areas of agricultural and environmental economics focusing on issues including agricultural marketing, information policy, behavioral economics and product quality. He recently served as an editor for American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the flagship journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and currently serves as the faculty leader of his department’s undergraduate program. His recent research includes a USDA funded project focused on local foods and school lunch programs and participation in an NSF-funded multidisciplinary team seeking to understand human-ecosystem feedbacks in the Western Lake Erie basin, including understanding how farms and agribusinesses respond to voluntary environmental programs and how Ohio residents respond to different options to manage Lake Erie water quality.