How Much Food Is Wasted In The US 💓

How Much Food Is Wasted In The US

When we stop food waste, we take a big step toward ending hunger.

There is more than enough food in America for everyone. However, billions of pounds of perfectly fine food are wasted each. In contrast, there are 34 million hungry people in the US.

The biggest food rescue organization in the nation, Feeding America works with farmers, grocery shops, restaurants, and food manufacturers to rescue food and send it to food banks that serve our communities.

What is food waste?

Food waste refers to healthy, high-quality food that is discarded rather than consumed. There are many reasons why food is wasted, including:

• Uneaten food that is thrown out at homes, stores, and restaurants

• Crops left in fields because of low crop prices or too many of the same crops being available

• Problems during the manufacturing and transportation of food

• Food not meeting retailers' standards for color and appearance

How much food waste is there in the United States?

In the US, 108 billion pounds of food are wasted annually. That works out to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion worth of food wasted annually. Surprisingly, 40% of the food produced in America is wasted.

Every step of the food manufacturing and distribution process results in food waste, from farmers to packers and shippers to manufacturers to retailers to our homes. About 39% of all food waste, or 42 billion pounds of food waste, occurs in our homes. While approximately 61% of total food waste, or 66 billion pounds of food waste, is made up of commercial food waste. Reduced food waste on farms, in food service, in manufacturing, and in retail are the main goals of Feeding America.

What is Feeding America doing about food waste?

The Feeding America network and our collaborators saved 4.7 billion pounds of food last year. That food was used to prepare meals for persons who were hungry. As a result, Feeding America is the country's biggest food rescue organization.

The act of gathering high-quality food that would otherwise go to waste and providing it to those who are hungry is known as food rescue or food recovery. In order to prevent food waste and deliver saved food to those in need, we collaborate with producers, retailers, and farmers. These sectors are responsible for 66 billion pounds of annual food waste.

We locate food that could go bad, offer saved food to food banks, safely transport food over long distances, and preserve food longer after it arrives at a food bank.

We are putting fresh ideas into practice to help our neighbors in need, including: