Food Sharing Platforms: Emerging Evidence from Italian and German Users

Among the most challenging problems of the 21st century, the fight against food waste and losses is still one of the biggest concerns researchers and policy makers are trying to solve. The latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s report (UNEP, 2021) estimates that around 931 million tons of food waste were generated in 2019, and the majority came from households. As a consequence of the negative social, economic and environmental effects of this phenomenon, numerous actions have been launched by policymakers aiming to try to reduce the volume of food waste also through the donation of surplus food. At the same time, digital transformation and the advent of the sharing economy have boosted the launch of startups with disruptive business models creating a secondary market for the distribution of food surplus, thus trying to spread the practice of sustainable and collaborative consumption. Extant literature on the topic is relatively new. Despite a few recent attempts to study food sharing digital platforms, our knowledge is still limited (either in terms of platforms considered and of users’ nationality). This paper aims therefore at shedding new light on the proposed issue by providing a first attempt to study the behavior of Italian and German users of food sharing digital platforms. Data collected through an ad-hoc developed survey have been analyzed through a cluster analysis and preliminary results about users’ habits discussed. In doing so, we also provide insights about the critical issues that need to be considered to boost the adoption/diffusion of such platforms, i.e. logistics-related problems to reach full extensiveness of the service.