Healthier diets waste more food, and a one-week audit shows where yours goes

Key takeaways

• In a 2018 study led by a USDA scientist, Americans wasted about 422 grams of food per person a day, nearly a pound, and fruits and vegetables made up 39% of it⁹.
• Major estimates of U.S. food waste run from about 31% to 35% of the food supply, depending on who counts, which years and which parts of the food chain¹²⁵.
• USDA puts the loss at about $1,500 a year for a family of four, and a Penn State model estimated $1,866 per household⁴⁸.
• In the Penn State analysis, households that shopped with a list wasted less, while households with healthier, produce-heavy diets wasted more⁸.
• Federal law has protected good-faith food donors since 1996, and 2023 amendments extended that protection to businesses that give food directly to people in need¹⁴¹⁵.

Every day, the average American throws out nearly a pound of food. A 2018 study in the journal PLOS ONE, led by Zach Conrad of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, put the figure at 422 grams per person, using national diet data from 2007 to 2014⁹.

The biggest share wasn’t junk food. Fruits, vegetables and dishes made mostly from them made up 39% of what people threw away⁹. And people with higher-quality diets, measured by a federal diet score, wasted more food, not less⁹.

A separate Penn State analysis of about 4,000 households found the same pattern: homes with healthier diets, heavy in perishable produce, wasted more⁸.

If you shop for fresh, whole food, that’s uncomfortable news, but it’s also useful. The people most committed to eating well have the most to gain from a few kitchen habits.

This guide shows where waste happens and what it costs, then gives you a one-week audit and a plan to plug your household’s leaks.

Three national counts give three different answers

Ask how much U.S. food goes uneaten and you’ll hear 30%, a third or 40%, because different groups are measuring different things.

Estimate	Who and when	What it counts	Headline number
USDA Economic Research Service	2014 report, 2010 data	Stores and consumers only; inedible parts removed	31% of the food supply: 133 billion pounds worth $161.6 billion2
EPA, “From Farm to Kitchen”	2021 report	The whole chain, from farm to fork, drawing on many studies	About 35%; single studies it reviewed ran from under 25% to 45%1
ReFED, a nonprofit	2025 report, 2023 data	The whole chain, with a new survey-based method for homes	31%: 73.9 million tons worth $382 billion5

USDA’s familiar “30% to 40%” line is a rounded range built on its own 31% estimate⁴. EPA’s 35% matches two earlier estimates, one of them from ReFED¹.

Why don’t they match? USDA’s estimate leaves out farms and food processors, so its authors say it likely undercounts³. It also applies loss assumptions to more than 200 foods instead of measuring what people discard³.

ReFED changed its method in 2025. It swapped older USDA loss rates, last updated for 2011 and 2012, for household surveys run by Ohio State University since 2021⁶. Its new estimate of home waste came out 40% lower, about 17 million tons less⁶.

Don’t read that as households suddenly wasting less. ReFED says its old numbers were probably too high all along, and that the rate at which consumers waste food is climbing⁶.

The lesson: nobody knows the exact figure, but every major count lands near a third of the food supply.

Homes and restaurants waste more than farms or stores

Food gets lost at every step from field to fridge, but the largest slice disappears where food is eaten.

EPA’s 2021 review found that households and food service together account for roughly half of U.S. food loss and waste¹. Add grocery stores, and the share rises to between half and three-quarters¹. In USDA’s 2010 numbers, about two-thirds of store-and-consumer loss happened in homes, restaurants and other places people eat³.

ReFED estimated that consumers wasted close to 35 million tons in 2023, counting home groceries and restaurant plate waste together⁵. That came to $261 billion, or nearly $800 per person⁵. BioCycle, a trade journal, reported that this equals about 14% of spending on food eaten at home and 7% of spending on meals out⁷.

What does that mean for one family? It depends on whose math you use:

• USDA: about $1,500 a year for a family of four, based on roughly $370 per person in consumer-level loss⁴. That per-person figure matches USDA’s estimate for 2010³.
• Penn state: about $1,866 per household, a modeled average from USDA survey data⁸.
• ReFED: nearly $800 per person in 2023, including restaurant plate waste⁵.

The healthiest foods are the ones that spoil in the bin

The foods most often thrown out are the ones nutrition advice tells you to eat more of.

In Conrad’s study, fruits, vegetables and mixed produce dishes made up 39% of food waste⁹. Dairy came next at 17%, then meat and meat dishes at 14%⁹. USDA found that vegetables had the biggest losses of any food group at the consumer level, and about 72% of all vegetable loss happened at the consumer level, in homes and restaurants, rather than in stores³.

By dollar value, the picture shifts. Meat, poultry and fish made up about 30% of the value of store and consumer loss in 2010, vegetables 19% and dairy 17%². Produce fills the bin, but meat drains the wallet.

What leaves with the food

Wasted food takes real nutrition with it. EPA’s report cites a 2017 study that estimated what the food stores and consumers discarded in 2012 contained¹.

Per person per day, it held about 5.9 grams of fiber, 33 grams of protein, 286 milligrams of calcium, 880 milligrams of potassium and 1.7 micrograms of vitamin D¹. Most Americans already fall short on fiber, as our fiber guide explains. Some of that missing fiber is sitting in the trash.

Calories add up, too. USDA estimated that 1,249 calories per person per day were lost at the store and consumer levels in 2010². EPA’s review of other studies found a range of 1,110 to 1,520¹. That’s food grown, shipped and paid for, then never eaten.

Why good food gets thrown out at home

USDA researchers list the most common reasons food goes uneaten in homes and restaurants³:

• Cooking or serving more than people eat.
• Tossing produce that’s bruised, blemished or oddly shaped.
• Large portions that end up as plate scraps.
• Confusion over “use by” and “best before” dates.
• Throwing out small leftovers, like the last of the milk in a cereal bowl.

The Penn State analysis offers clues about who wastes less⁸. Households that shopped with a list had lower waste, as did larger households, food-insecure households and families in SNAP, the federal food assistance program⁸. Higher-income households wasted more⁸.

These are links, not proof, and the study’s waste figures come from a model built on calorie needs rather than direct measurement⁸. Still, the pattern fits common sense: people who plan and stretch each dollar throw out less.

Date labels deserve a special warning. Except for infant formula, federal law doesn’t require them¹⁵. Our food storage guide explains what each label means and how to judge food past its date.

Try a one-week kitchen waste audit

You can’t fix waste you can’t see. For seven days, track everything edible your household throws out, which takes about a minute a day.

1. Set up. On a sheet taped to the fridge or a note on your phone, make columns for the day, the food, the amount and why it went.
2. Record every edible item. Count spoiled produce, scraped plates, stale bread and forgotten leftovers. Skip true scraps such as bones, pits and peels, which USDA’s estimates leave out too².
3. Give each item a reason code. B for bought too much, C for cooked too much, F for forgotten, D for date worries, and P for plate waste or picky eaters.
4. Guess the cost. Rough numbers for half a bag of spinach or a cup of rice are fine.
5. Tally on day 7. Which food group shows up most? Which reason code wins?
6. Choose one fix for each top reason from the table below and try it for a month. Then audit again and compare.

Your top reason	What it usually means	First fix to try
B: bought too much	Shopping without a plan	Shop from a list built around four or five planned dinners; buy fragile produce twice a week
C: cooked too much	Recipes sized for a crowd	Cook to your headcount, and freeze extra portions the same day
F: forgotten	Older food hidden behind new purchases	A first-in, first-out shelf and an “eat me first” bin
D: date worries	Quality dates read as safety deadlines	Learn the labels, and use storage times plus look and smell
P: plate waste	Serving more than people eat	Smaller first helpings, seconds on request, and a leftovers night

A use-it-up plan for the week

Once the audit shows your leaks, these four habits plug the most common ones.

First in, first out. When you unpack groceries, move older items to the front of the fridge and pantry and put new ones behind them, so you reach for the oldest food first.

An “eat me first” bin. Keep one clear container on an eye-level fridge shelf for food that needs to go soon: the half onion, the open yogurt, the softening peppers. Check it before you cook or snack.

A weekly leftovers night. Pick one dinner a week that’s built from what’s already in the fridge. Grain bowls, soups, frittatas and fried rice can absorb almost anything.

A freezer rescue list. Freezing buys you time, but only if you remember what’s in there. Keep a running list on the freezer door of each item and the date it went in.

Share what you can’t eat, then compost the rest

Thrift is one of the oldest health values there is. Grandparents who simmered bones into broth and baked stale bread into pudding weren’t following a trend; they respected food and the work behind it. Cutting waste fits naturally with caring about whole food, the land and your neighbors.

EPA’s Wasted Food Scale, released in 2023, ranks ways to handle surplus food from most to least preferred¹². Prevention, donation and feeding animals come out on top, and the scale discourages sending food down the garbage disposal¹².

Donating: the law protects you

Many people hesitate to give food away because they fear being sued if someone gets sick. Congress addressed that worry in the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996¹⁵.

The law protects people who donate “apparently wholesome” food in good faith to a nonprofit that gives it to people in need¹⁴. That term covers food that meets quality and labeling standards even if it can’t be sold because of its looks, age, freshness, size or surplus¹⁴. The protection doesn’t cover gross negligence or intentional misconduct¹⁴.

Amendments enacted on January 5, 2023, known as the Food Donation Improvement Act, widened the law¹⁴¹⁵. Grocers, restaurants, caterers and school food programs are now protected when they give food directly to people in need at no cost¹⁴. Nonprofits are also covered when they charge a small fee capped at their own costs of handling, processing and distributing the food¹⁴.

USDA’s food safety agency says products past a “best if used by” or “sell by” date can still be donated¹⁵. Even so, only about 2% of U.S. surplus food was donated in 2023, while about 85% went to landfills and other disposal⁷.

For a household, the simplest step is to call a local food pantry and ask what it accepts, since each pantry sets its own rules.

Composting: turn scraps into soil

Composting returns peels, cores and coffee grounds to the soil instead of a landfill. In 2023, EPA estimated that food waste causes 58% of the methane escaping from U.S. municipal landfills, and that about half the methane from buried food escapes within roughly three and a half years of disposal¹². A later article covers food waste and the environment in depth.

EPA’s home composting basics¹³:

• Mix browns and greens. Use two to three times as much “browns” (dry leaves, twigs, shredded cardboard) as “greens” (fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds). Keep food scraps covered with 4 to 8 inches of browns.
• Keep it damp and airy. The pile should feel like a wrung-out sponge. Turn it now and then.
• Leave out problem items. Skip meat, fish, bones, dairy, fats and oils, which draw animals. Also skip pet waste, diseased plants and produce stickers.
• Be patient. A healthy pile heats to 130°F to 160°F. Let it cure for at least four weeks; it’s usually ready in three to five months.
• No yard? A worm bin with red wrigglers can sit under a sink or in a closet and yields compost in three to six months.

The national goal is to halve waste by 2030

The United States has had a food waste target since September 2015, when USDA and EPA set a goal to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030¹¹.

In June 2024, EPA, USDA and the Food and Drug Administration released a National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics¹⁰. It set four objectives: prevent food loss, prevent food waste, recycle more organic waste, and support policies that encourage prevention and recycling¹⁰. For households, EPA said it would lead a national consumer education campaign¹⁰.

Where does that stand? As of September 2026, EPA’s website still describes the 2030 goal and the strategy’s four objectives¹¹. We found no federal report measuring progress toward the goal, and ReFED’s 2025 report said the country remains far from it⁵.

What the evidence supports

Claim	Evidence level	What the research shows
U.S. households waste a large share of the food they get	Strong evidence	Every major estimate lands near a third of the food supply, though methods differ125
Fruits and vegetables are the most wasted foods at home	Strong evidence	39% of waste in national diet data; vegetables lead consumer-level losses39
Healthier diets go with more waste	Promising but early	Two observational studies agree; neither proves cause89
Shopping with a list cuts household waste	Promising but early	Linked with less waste in one modeled analysis8
Keeping food out of landfills cuts methane	Strong evidence	EPA estimates food waste causes 58% of landfill methane emissions1012
Food past its “best if used by” date must be thrown out	Evidence says no, or unsafe	It’s a quality date, and past-date food can even be donated15

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

Americans throw out roughly a third of their food, and fruits and vegetables, the foods nutrition advice urges us to eat more of, lead the list. Estimates of the cost differ, but USDA and Penn State researchers put a household’s loss at $1,500 or more a year.

You don’t have to change what you eat to waste less. Spend one week tracking what you toss and why, then match each problem to a fix: a list, a first-in, first-out shelf, an “eat me first” bin, a leftovers night and a freezer. Donate what you can’t use, and compost what’s left.

Related reading

• Date labels mostly track quality, while a fridge thermometer tracks safety
• A stockpot of chili took a day to cool, so batch cook the safer way
• Meal planners eat more variety, and a 20-minute weekly plan can get you there
• Most adults eat too few vegetables, and five a day can cost under $3
• A healthy month of groceries, priced by the government

Sources

1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development. “From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste.” EPA, November 2021. epa.gov
2. Buzby JC, Wells HF, Hyman J. “The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States” (EIB-121). USDA Economic Research Service, February 2014. ers.usda.gov
3. Buzby JC, Wells HF, Aulakh J. “Food Loss—Questions About the Amount and Causes Still Remain.” USDA Economic Research Service, Amber Waves, June 2, 2014. ers.usda.gov
4. U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Why Should We Care About Food Waste?” USDA, undated. usda.gov
5. ReFED. “Food Waste Remains Stubbornly High Despite Signs of Progress, According to New ReFED Report.” ReFED, February 25, 2025. refed.org
6. ReFED. “How Much Food Do Households Waste? New and Improved Residential Food Waste Estimates.” ReFED, February 25, 2025. refed.org
7. BioCycle. “The State of Food Waste in the U.S.” BioCycle, March 11, 2025. biocycle.net
8. Penn State News. “Study Suggests U.S. Households Waste Nearly a Third of the Food They Acquire” (on Yu Y, Jaenicke EC, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2020). Pennsylvania State University, January 23, 2020. psu.edu
9. University of Vermont Gund Institute for Environment. “People Waste Nearly a Pound of Food Daily” (on Conrad Z, et al., PLOS ONE, 2018). UVM, April 18, 2018. uvm.edu
10. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces National Strategy to Reduce Food Loss and Waste and Recycle Organics.” EPA news release, June 12, 2024. epa.gov
11. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Contact Us About Sustainable Management of Food” (2030 goal and National Strategy overview). EPA, last updated September 24, 2026. epa.gov
12. Wallace J. “EPA Reports Quantify Methane Emissions From Organic Waste, Retire Food Recovery Hierarchy” (on EPA’s October 2023 landfill methane report and Wasted Food Scale). Waste Dive, October 20, 2023. wastedive.com
13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Composting At Home.” EPA, last updated December 8, 2025. epa.gov
14. U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Frequently Asked Questions About the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.” USDA, undated (reflects amendments of January 5, 2023). usda.gov
15. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. “Food Donation” webinar presentation. FSIS, November 18, 2024. fsis.usda.gov