Food Waste in America in 2021: Statistics + Facts

Food takes up more space in US landfills than anything else.

With employees working from home, students learning remotely, and people ordering takeout to support their local restaurants, food bills skyrocketed1 as families spent more time – and ate more meals – at home. In the United States, the surge in food spending often translates to more food waste. Even prepandemic, we wasted massive quantities of food every single day of the year.

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 1.4 billion tons of food2 every year, the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 40 million tons — 80 billion pounds — every year.3 That’s estimated to be 30-40 percent of the entire US food supply,4 and equates to 219 pounds of waste per person.5 That’s like every person in America throwing more than 650 averagesized 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,6 making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW).7

Globally, we waste about 1.4 billion tons of food every year.15

Why do we waste so much food?

Before COVID-19, it was estimated 35 million people across America — including 10 million children — suffered from food insecurity.8 That number is expected to increase to as much as 50 million people9 in 2021 due to the employment drop and financial fallout from the pandemic. With so many people suffering who need 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 percent10 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.19