Leveraging consumer behavior insights and information-based interventions to mitigate food waste in restaurant environments: a step toward sustainable food systems management.

Background: A rapid increase in food waste has gained global attention, and providing consumers with sustainability information in restaurants is considered an important anti-food waste intervention. However, there is ongoing debate regarding its effectiveness. This study explores whether crowding-a common dining situation in restaurants-has a potential impact on the effectiveness of information-based interventions. Methods: Three experiments were conducted with a total sample of 1,124 participants ( Results: The results indicate a matching effect between crowding and information-based intervention types. Specifically, under high crowding conditions, prompt-type interventions (vs. feedback-based interventions) significantly increase consumers' willingness to pack leftovers and reduce over-ordering behaviors. In contrast, under low crowding conditions, feedback-based interventions (vs. prompt-type interventions) are more effective in mitigating food waste. Furthermore, information processing fluency mediates this matching effect. Discussion: These findings reveal how environmental factors in restaurants influence the effectiveness of information-based interventions and provide practical guidance for marketers to select appropriate information-based intervention types based on the level of restaurant crowding to effectively prevent food waste.