Understanding consumer food waste behaviours : findings from France.
Date: 2025-06-11
Institutions: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
Subjects: France, consumer behaviour, domestic waste, fight against wastage, food consumption, food waste, labelling

Health and Food Safety

Understanding consumer 
food waste behaviours 
Findings from France

March 2025

The Commission carried out a study to look at consumer behaviours concerning food waste and date 
marking. The study covered over 25000 participants from across all 27 EU Member States, who were 
asked to report on how they manage food in their daily lives through a survey. 

Based on their responses, the study developed three consumer types, which can benefit from 
different types of actions to help them reduce food waste.

The three types of consumers

Unconcerned 
food wasters

Pragmatic
food wasters

Aware
food wasters

People who frequently waste 
food, mainly motivated 
by personal interest and 
convenience

People who waste food 
occasionally, mainly motivated 
by practical considerations

People who waste food 
occasionally, motivated by 
holistic considerations

38%

of consumers 
in France

46%

of consumers 
in France

15%

of consumers 
in France

How often do you 
throw away food?

How often do you 
throw away food?

How often do you 
throw away food?

Daily
Weekly
Never

Daily
Weekly
Never

Daily
Weekly
Never

0%

30%

60%

0%

30%

60%

0%

30%

60%

France has a large proportion of both unconcerned food wasters and pragmatic food wasters. 
Targeted actions should aim to use a combination of approaches to reduce food waste, suited 
for each consumer type.

Consumer types in detail

Unconcerned 
food wasters

Pragmatic 
food wasters

Aware 
food wasters

Key motivation: 
Personal interest

Key motivation: 
Pragmatic approach

What impacts your food 
purchasing?

What impacts your food 
purchasing?

Key motivation: 
Holistic approach
What impacts your food 
purchasing?

Environment
Ethics
Cost
Taste

Environment
Ethics
Cost
Taste

Environment
Ethics
Cost
Taste

0%

50%

100%

0%

50%

100%

0%

50%

100%

Demographics

Demographics

Demographics

France Unc

56% male

Generally  
younger

42%
under 35 y/o

France Prag

57% female

Generally  
older

80%
over 35 y/o

France Conc

51% male

Generally  
older

84%
over 35 y/o

Date marking 

Each type shows distinct behaviours and levels of understanding concerning date marking on 
food, though there are certain similarities across all consumer groups. 

The proportion (%) of each type in France that...

USE BY
BEST BEFORE

Always check the date 
marking label

Correctly follow ‘use by’ 
and ‘best before’ dates

45

21

59

7

75

25

All consumer groups can 
benefit from actions to 
improve understanding 
of the meaning of date 
marking. 

Targeted actions

Actions to reduce food waste that are targeted for consumer types and tailored to address their 
motivations, skills and abilities are more likely to be effective. These actions can be adapted to 
each country’s national context. 

Recommendations for actions:

Unconcerned food 
wasters

Aim to change motivations and engagement before providing 
practical advice or tools.

Pragmatic 
food wasters

Aware  
food wasters

Aim to influence both motivations and behaviour.

Aim to bridge the gap between intention and action with 
practical support.

INFORMATIVE ACTIONS

TOOLS

COACHING

Shopping lists, 
informative fridge 
magnets, measuring 
cups, cooking apps, 
recipe cards, meal 
kits.

For unconcerned food 
wasters, combine 
tools with awareness 
campaigns.

Provide information 
that aims to 
change motivation 
and improve 
understanding of food 
waste and its causes. 

Provide practical 
information to boost 
skills that reduce the 
gap between intention 
and action.

Improve 
understanding of date 
marking labels.

Provide tools that help 
people bridge the gap 
between their intentions 
to reduce food waste and 
their actions. 

Keep it 
simple! Avoid 
information 
overload.

Workshops, demos, 
and training sessions 
to teach, train, enable 
and motivate all 
groups. 

Aware food wasters 
may be the most likely 
to enrol in coaching 
activities. 

Pragmatic and 
unconcerned food 
wasters may benefit 
most from coaching, 
so recruitment 
strategies should 
target these groups 
with tailored messages 
and through relevant 
channels. 

Use positive 
messages

Combine cost saving 
messages with other 
arguments

© European Union, 2025

Reuse of this document is allowed, provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are 
indicated (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license). For any use or reproduction 
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Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2025

PDF 

ISBN 978-92-68-28104-8 

doi:10.2875/7543036 

EW-01-25-045-EN-N