Behavior regarding vegetable waste in a sample of Cuban households

Abstract

Food waste is at the center of the international debate and is reflected in the Agenda for Sustainable Development. Cuba recognizes the importance of food wastage, but does not yet have a baseline for quantifying wastage at the consumer level. The article describes the behavior regarding vegetable wastage in the domestic sector through the application of a survey in a sample of households in a Cuban municipality. A descriptive non-experimental cross-sectional quantitative research was carried out and a non-probabilistic sampling by convenience was used, where 75 households participated voluntarily. The percentage of each variable under analysis was calculated using Microsoft Excel software. The families had a total of 204 people, with a predominance of two and three members. The presence of cardiovascular diseases was evidenced, representing 42% of the non-communicable diseases reported by the respondents. In general, there is a perception of never or almost never wasting vegetables. Those left over from the meals that are discarded at the end of the meal are the most frequently discarded. It was found that 73.3% of the families waste less than one pound of vegetables per week and the most wasted vegetables are leafy vegetables, followed by fruit, bulb and tuber vegetables. The main destinations of vegetable waste are donation to another person for animal feed and for feeding one's own animals.