O DESPERDÍCIO DE ALIMENTOS PELA ÓTICA DAS REPRESENTAÇÕESSOCIAIS: O QUE PENSA A GERAÇÃO Z?

Abstract

Food waste is characterized as the disposal that occurs at the end of the supply chain, resulting from consumers' decisions and behaviors. This issue has gained global relevance, mobilizing various organizations due to its environmental, social, and economic impacts on society. This study aims to investigate, through the lens of the Theory of Social Representations, how Generation Z perceives food waste. To this end, participants born between 1995 and 2010, enrolled in Applied Social Sciences programs at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, answered the prompt: “Think about food waste in your home. Now write three words that best represent what you thought.” Using the free word association technique, It was conducted a prototypical analysis, similitude analysis, and a descending hierarchical classification with the Iramuteq software. These methods made it possible to identify clusters within different representations and to distinguish the central and peripheral elements according to the structural approach of the Theory of Social Representations. Additional analyses were carried out by integrating variables such as gender, income, and the types of food wasted during different days of the week. This exploratory study is relevant for supporting awareness campaigns and public policies aimed at understanding consumer behavior in relation to food waste.