Food waste by the numbers

The amount of food gets wasted every year in the United States: 133 billion pounds

The percentage of the U.S. food supply that gets wasted every year: 30%

The amount of water it takes to grow and produce just the food that gets wasted every year: 5.9 trillion gallons (that’s the equivalent of nearly 9 million olympic-sized swimming pools)

The number of acres of agricultural land it takes to grow just the food that gets wasted every year: 140 million acres (that’s roughly the size of California and New York state combined)

The climate emissions caused by food waste in landfills (CO2 equivalent emissions): 55 million metric tons (that’s roughly equivalent to the emissions from 12.8 million gas powered passenger vehicles)

The percentage of global climate emissions that can be attributed to food waste: 8-10%

The amount of landfilled garbage in the U.S. that is food: 24%

The amount of incinerated garbage in the U.S. that is food: 22%

The percentage of food waste that is generated in the food retail, food service and residential sectors in the U.S. that gets turned into compost and put back into the food system: 5%

The percentage of overall food waste that happens at American homes: 43%

The average amount of money that a family of four spends every year on food that they never eat: $3000

The percentage of American consumers who have discarded food at least occasionally because they are confused about the food date label: 88%

The percentage of American consumers who say they always or usually throw away food around the label date, even though most food remains safe to eat past that date: 43%

The percentage of overall food waste that can be attributed to confusing food date labels: 7%

We waste too much food and we need to do more to reduce the amount of edible food we throw away. One commonsense way we can do this is by making food date labels uniform and meaningful. 

Most of us are familiar with the labels that come on our food: “best by”, “use by”, “sell by”, “freshest by”. Most of the time, those labels do not actually communicate food safety. Oftentimes, products can remain safe to eat for days, or even weeks, past a “sell by’ date. Understandably, these labels cause confusion about food safety, which leads to people throwing out food that could still be consumed.

Given the amount of time, energy, and resources involved in growing, processing, and transporting food, the last thing we should do is throw it away, especially if it is still good to eat.

We can reduce household food waste by standardizing food date labels, thereby reducing consumer confusion. The only two labels allowed on food would be “best by,” which would indicate freshness, and “use by,” which would indicate safety. Anything other than those two labels, like “sell by” or “freshest by” would not be allowed. 

Send a message to your U.S. Senators and ask them to support the Food Date Labeling Act, which would standardize food date labels across the country and reduce unnecessary food waste.