Request to Conduct Exploratory Semi-Structured Interviews on Retail Food Loss under Generic Clearance for Survey Research Studies

Appendix E-1

Initial Recruitment Email for Non-FMI Members

Exploratory Semi-structured Interviews on Retail Food Loss

Agency: Economic Research Service

Contractor: RTI International

Appendix E-1: Initial Recruitment Email for Non-FMI Members¹

Hello,

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working to address the problem of food loss and waste through its programs, policies, and guidance. As part of these efforts, the USDA Economic Research Service (USDA, ERS) has contracted with RTI International to conduct a study on food loss in retail stores. We are asking food retail companies to participate in confidential interviews to help inform the design of a potential national study on retail-level food loss. We have chosen your company so that we talk to different sizes and types of retailers.

We would like to interview the person or persons in your company who is most knowledgeable about how your company tracks food loss and maintains electronic data on product shipments and sales. This might be someone in operations or supply chain management, or a procurement specialist or retail/supermarket buyer. Taking part in the interview will take about 2 hours—90 minutes for the interview itself and about 30 minutes of prep time before the interview. Participation is voluntary and confidential.

Please reply to my email to confirm your interest or to recommend the person within your company I should contact (including an email and phone number). I will follow-up by email to schedule an interview and to provide more information about the study. Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Name
[Study Coordinator name]
USDA ERS Retail-Level Food Loss Study
[email address, phone number]

NOTIFICATION TO RESPONDENT OF ESTIMATED BURDEN: Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 127 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is #0536-0073. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: Linda Kantor, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (linda.kantor@usda.gov).

1 We will initially contact companies by email instead of phone if an email address is available through online searches. After sending the email in Appendix E-1, we will follow-up to schedule the interview and provide more information by sending the email in Appendix E-2.