Food Waste in America in 2023:

Statistics + Facts

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How much food we waste globally and in America alone
• The primary reasons food goes to waste
• The environmental and economic repercussions of food waste
• What governments are doing to curb waste
• How to solve the problem at home and business
• The Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy

The Facts About Food Waste

How much food is wasted in America?

Just how much food do Americans waste? Here’s some “food” for thought: While the world wastes about 2.5 billion tons of food every year, the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 60 million tons — 120 billion pounds — every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply, and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person. That’s like every person in America throwing 975 average sized apples right into the garbage — or rather right into landfills, as most discarded food ends up there. In fact, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW). All told, the amount of food wasted in America has an approximate value of nearly $218 billion – the equivalent of 130 billion meals.

Americans waste about 60 million tons of food every year.

Why do we waste so much food?

It is estimated that nearly 35 million people across America — including 10 million children — suffer from food insecurity. With so many people suffering and in need of basic amounts of food, why do Americans waste so much of their food abundance? Getting to the bottom of what causes food waste in America is a challenge that traverses the complex landscapes of socioeconomic disparities, confusion, and ingrained beliefs, layered with human behaviors and habits. Food spoilage, whether real or perceived, is one of the biggest reasons people throw out food. More than 80 percent of Americans discard perfectly good, consumable food simply because they misunderstand expiration labels. Labels like “sell by”, “use by”, “expires on”, “best before” or “best by” are confusing to people — and in an effort to not risk the potential of a foodborne illness, they’ll toss it in the garbage.

More than 80 percent of Americans discard perfectly good food because they misunderstand expiration labels.

Compared to the rest of the world, food in the United States is plentiful and less costly, and often this contributes to a general sentiment of not appreciating or valuing it the way other communities around the globe do. Americans are often impulsive in their food purchases, unrealistically assessing how much food is required, and as a result buying more food than they need or buying food they won’t actually eat. Our take-out society doesn’t use food in its entirety the way our ancestors used to. We underutilize leftovers and toss food scraps that can still be consumed or composted. Composting isn’t part of our food-prep routine, so we continue to add fuel to the fire in increasing the sheer size of US landfills.

Americans discard more food than any other country, nearly 40 million tons — or 30-40 percent of the entire US food supply.

Changing the laws to curb so much waste

The good news is that several states across the country are taking action to curb food waste and gain food recovery. Legislators in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont have passed laws that restrict the amount of food waste going to landfills. Vermont’s “Universal Recycling Law” went into effect in July 2020, banning food scrap waste entirely. According to the Vermont Foodbank, as a result of the new law, food donations statewide have increased 40 percent. There is pending legislation in California, Colorado and Massachusetts that would establish programs to fund private-sector composting and organic collection programs. In addition, several states like Tennessee and Washington, and cities like Los Angeles and Madison, Wisconsin, have created food waste task forces to reduce waste, creating composting education and infrastructure and eliminating food waste from US landfills.

Confronting Waste and Solving the Problem at Home

So how do we tackle food waste in America? The challenge isn’t to produce less food, but to waste less in the process. Here’s how we can start:

Don’t misinterpret expiration labels on food that’s perfectly good to eat.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Food Marketing Institute, and Harvard University have combined efforts to streamline expiration labels about the quality and safety of food. Two phrases simplify how you can tell what’s still good to consume: BEST IF USED BY describes quality “where the product may not taste or perform as expected but is safe to consume”;

USE BY applies to “the few products that are highly perishable and/or have food safety concern over time.”¹⁴

Learn how to compost to keep food scraps out of landfills, and the amount of greenhouse gases from rising.

Freeze food that can’t be eaten immediately, but could be consumed at a later date.

Share the wealth.

Donate food to food pantries or deliver leftovers to people who may need it. Plan meals and make deliberate grocery store shopping lists. Fruits and veggies with blemishes and flaws still taste the same and are typically a fraction of the cost. In addition to saving food, you’ll save money in the long run. Embrace imperfect produce.

Plan meals and make deliberate grocery store shopping lists.

Fruits and veggies with blemishes and flaws still taste the same and are typically a fraction of the cost. In addition to saving food, you’ll save money in the long run. Embrace imperfect produce.

Food is wasted along the entire supply chain

Farming Food Waste

Approximately 30-40 percent of food that farmers around the world produce is never consumed.

Between 21 and 33 percent of water used across US farms is wasted.

Food loss at the farm level depends on many uncontrollable variables, including the type and quality of crop, market price and consumer demand.

If there’s no market for a particular crop, it’s better for the environment for farms to plow the crops back into the earth and take a loss before harvesting and packing up food to enter the supply chain. If the crop goes back into the earth, it will help produce better soil for future harvests, but if the food isn’t consumed, it will most often end up in a landfill releasing greenhouse gases.

Manufacturing Food Waste

Human error, including lack of standard operating procedures and poor training, is the main cause of food waste at the manufacturing level, accounting for more than 10 percent of food waste.

Food that is associated with a food allergy, such as peanuts or gluten, is often wasted due to manufacturing lines that need to be run several times to produce an allergen-free product.

New product development creates food waste due to the production processes that manufacturers must go through to coordinate correct volumes and product quality.

Grocery Store Food Waste

About 30 percent of food in American grocery stores is thrown away. US retail stores generate about 16 billion pounds of food waste every year.   Wasted food from the retail sector is valued at about twice the amount of profit from food sales.