FoodReview
2
Food Loss
T he U.S. food supply is the
most varied and abundant in
the world. Americans spend a
smaller share of their disposable
income on food than citizens of any
other country and choose from an
average of 50,000 different food
products on a typical outing to the
supermarket. In 1994, the food sup-
ply provided an estimated 3,800
calories per person per day, enough
to supply every American with
more than one and a half times their
average daily energy needs. Given
this abundance, few of the Nation’s
resources have traditionally been
devoted to measuring or reducing
food waste.
In recent years, growing concern
about hunger, resource conservation,
and the environmental and eco-
nomic costs associated with food
waste have raised public awareness
of food loss. This in turn has acceler-
ated public and private efforts to
make better use of available food
supplies by recovering safe and
nutritious food that would other-
wise be wasted.
Of course, not all food that is lost
is suitable for consumption (fig. 1).
Some losses—like the condemnation
The authors are agricultural economists with the
Economic Research Service, USDA. Kantor and
Oliveira are with the Food and Consumer Econom-
ics Division, Lipton is with the Office of the Admin-
istrator, and Manchester is with the Commercial
Agriculture Division.
Estimating and Addressing
America’s Food Losses
Linda Scott Kantor, Kathryn Lipton, Alden Manchester, and Victor Oliveira
(202) 219-1264 (202) 219-1106 (202) 219-0832 (202) 219-4133
Note: 1Foodservice and consumer losses include storage, preparation, and plate waste at the household
and foodservice levels. Source: Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
ERS estimates only losses by retailers, consumers, and foodservice1...
Food Losses Occur Throughout the Food System
Some food losses occur at the farm and farm-to-retail level...
Farm and post-harvest
Preharvest losses due to severe
weather, disease, and predation.
Harvest losses attributed to mech-
nization, producti