National Academies Press: OpenBook

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level (2020)

Chapter: Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste

« Previous: Appendix B: Literature Search Approach
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

Appendix C

Additional Information on Food Waste

This appendix focuses on the defining and estimating food loss and food waste. After laying out the basics of the various definitions and the challenges and efforts to standardize those terms, the rest of the appendix presents an overview of methods to estimate food loss and food waste and examples of programs to reduce food loss and food waste. In addition, the appendix includes selected resources and efforst by stakeholders in the United States. The appendix focuses primarily on consumer-level food waste.

ESTIMATING FOOD LOSS AND FOOD WASTE

Defining Food

The definition of “food” is key to most definitions of food loss and food waste. It is common for “food intended for human consumption” to be used to differentiate between food materials included and excluded. Food materials grown for nonfood uses (e.g., ethanol production or animal feed) and inedible parts of plants (e.g., corn stalks) are excluded. There is a differentiation between “associated inedible parts,” which tend to be harvested alongside the edible parts (e.g., corn husks), and “inedible parts,” which are unlikely to be harvested (e.g., corn stalks). Other unintended or unmarketable parts of plants (e.g., small ears of corn) or loss from natural causes are sometimes included (Spang et al., 2019).

After the definition of food is determined, there are three major differences that delineate the definition of food loss and food waste: (1) stages

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

of the supply chain included (e.g., on-farm losses are sometimes excluded); (2) inclusion or exclusion of associated edible parts (e.g., the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] excludes associated inedible parts while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] includes them); and (3) end-of-life/discard destinations included (e.g., sometimes only landfill/incineration is considered food waste) (Spang et al., 2019). The many definitions and terms for food loss and food waste (Roodhuyzen et al., 2017) make comparisons between studies difficult (Bellemare et al., 2017; Östergren et al., 2014; Spang et al., 2019). To reduce this difficulty, an international accounting and reporting standard was created to standardize reporting, and it requires a clear description of the boundaries of quantification (Hanson et al., 2016). Additionally, FUSIONS (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies), a project of the European Union, released a definitional framework, clearly defining suggested boundaries for food loss and food waste (Östergren et al., 2014).

Sometimes “food loss” and “food waste” are distinguished from each other, although there are multiple ways in which they have been defined: (1) food loss as occurring upstream in the food supply chain and food waste as occurring at retail and consumer levels; (2) food waste as a subset of food loss; or (3) food loss as involuntary and food waste as voluntary. There are also other less common differentiations, such as wasted food (edible) and food scraps (inedible) or edible and inedible. Edibility (and avoidability), however, is not a fixed characteristic of food, but is based on biological/physical, social, cultural, and technological factors. Another term that is found in the literature, ingestibility (or digestibility), is not appropriate because many things are ingestible, for example lemon rind, but have unpleasant taste or texture or can become ingestible with enough processing (Gillick and Quested, 2018; Nicholes et al., 2019). Distinguishing between edible and associated inedible parts is important because it is generally acknowledged that these parts have different underlying reasons for being discarded; food waste prevention programs tend to focus on the avoidable or edible fraction of food waste while the inedible parts are targeted for composting or other valuable disposal streams. Another term, rescuable, refers to whether a food was safe to eat at the time of discard (e.g., moldy lasagna is considered edible but not rescuable).

Overview of Methods to Estimate Food Loss and Food Waste

Measurement and quantification are used to establish baselines, estimate impacts, identify areas for intervention or “hot spots,” and track progress over time. Quantification and measurement of food loss and waste has greatly increased in the last decade (Xue et al., 2017).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

The different purposes of measurement may require different levels of granularity or accuracy. The most common metric, expressed in total volume or as proportion, is mass (weight) although volume, monetary value, or cost and nutritional value (e.g., calories) are also used. The impacts of food loss and waste that are commonly explored are water use, energy use, influence on nutrient cycling, pollution and toxic material production, biodiversity loss, and land use change.

Given the recent proliferation of food waste estimates, there has been a call for standardization in quantification to enable comparison and track progress toward global, national, and regional goals (Xue et al., 2017), and multiple organizations have published guidances (Hanson et al., 2016; Quested, 2019; Tostivint et al., 2016). Notably, the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard was developed by an international group of experts and provides guidance on quantification, including a template to clearly define the boundaries of quantification (Hanson et al., 2016).

Despite the proliferation of estimates of food loss and waste at national and subnational levels, as well as for various stages along the food supply chain, there are major limitations in the current data. According to Xue et al. (2017) over half of the studies they reviewed were based on secondary data, signaling high uncertainties. In addition to the lack of primary data, outdated data are also frequently used. As mentioned above on definitions, significant variation in system boundaries and methodologies for quantification make comparisons and verification difficult (Hanson et al., 2016; Spang et al., 2019; Xue et al., 2017). Xue et al. (2017) suggest addressing this issue by creating a database that uses a common reporting framework to improve consistency and comparison.

Broadly, quantification methods at the consumer level are categorized into those that directly measure discarded food and those that quantify other metrics (e.g., total food production or food consumption) to estimate the amount of food waste (see Table C-1). Common direct methods are waste composition analyses, weighing studies, diaries, surveys (e.g., Stefan et al., 2013; Visschers et al., 2016), and records (e.g., waste bills). Common indirect methods are food balance models and use of proxy data as commonly used methods (Moreno et al., 2020; Roodhuyzen et al., 2017; Xue et al., 2017).

Many of these methods have differences in the information they provide (e.g., ability to provide granular data, drivers), representativeness of the data (e.g., communities, states, households), or whether they are self-reported data. Self-reported data from diaries, surveys, and some records (e.g., waste bills) are often subject to more bias associated with gaining a representative sample (e.g., bias in participation), accurate reporting (e.g., lapses in memory or intentional omissions), and changes in behavior as a result of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

TABLE C-1 Most Common Methods for Estimating Wasted Food at the Consumer Level

Method Description Information Consumer Level Accuracy, Objectivity, and Reliability
Direct Measurements
Weighing Scales; used in food service settings Less able to provide granular data; objective Populations High
Diaries Daily records; used for households and commercial kitchens Better able to provide granular data, with added information about drivers; self-reported but likely more accurate than surveys Individuals Medium
Surveys Questionnaires; used for households Better able to provide granular data, with added information about drivers; self-reported Individuals Medium
Records (e.g., waste bills) Nonfood waste-related data; used for households a well as retail and manufacturing businesses Less able to provide granular data; self-reported when measuring it at household level Individuals and populations Medium
Observation Visual estimation or counting the number of items wasted Less able to provide granular data; estimaed Populations Low
Indirect Measurements
Modeling Using mathematical models Less able to provide granular data Populations Low accuracy and reliability; medium objectivity
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Method Description Information Consumer Level Accuracy, Objectivity, and Reliability
Food Balance Models Using a food balance sheet or human metabolism based on inputs, outputs, and stocks along the food supply chain Less able to provide granular data Populations Medium accuracy and reliability; high objectivity
Proxy Data Using data from companies or statistical agencies; for scaling data to produce aggregated estimates Less able to provide granular data Populations Medium accuracy and reliability; high objectivity

reporting the data. However, some data are hard to obtain without self-reporting (e.g., information on drain disposal of food waste). Certain types of self-reported data (e.g., weighing or a kitchen diary) are considered more accurate than others, such as surveys, which ask people to recall how much food they wasted in the previous day or week or estimate how much they waste “on average.” Diaries and photo journals have been found to underestimate household-level food waste (van Herpen et al., 2019), but surveys and recalls are less accurate than diaries (Thompson and Subar, 2001).

The review by Xue et al. (2017) found that less than 20 percent of the studies used first-hand data. Although direct measurements have problems with achieving a representative sample, indirect measurements lack granularity. The authors argue that that no single measurement methodology is good enough and suggest the use of a statistics-based estimation of food loss and waste coupled with first-hand measured data to corroborate findings (Xue et al., 2017).

SAMPLES OF U.S. GUIDELINES AND INITIATIVES TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE AT THE CONSUMER LEVEL

Despite the challenges in measuring food waste, there is a general consensus that food waste is a growing concern, and many efforts have been undertaken by a wide variety of stakeholder groups to reduce it at the consumer level. Table C-2 provides a sampling of guidelines and toolkits

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

TABLE C-2 Sample Guidelines and Toolkits for How to Reduce Food Waste

Title Author Target Audience Description
Food Waste Reduction Guidelines at Home FUSIONS School children and their families; preschool educators; kindergarten food service employees Practical information about food waste, ways to maintain and store food, leftover recipes, and tips for efficient food purchases
Refresh Community of Experts Refresh, European Union All stakeholders Website that shares and collects information and best practices on food waste prevention
What You Can Do To Help Prevent Wasted Food USDA School staff; parents; Students Tips with links to related resources on how to reduce, recover, and recycle food
Tackling Food Waste in Cities: A Policy and Program Toolkit NRDC City policy makers and agency staff Strategies with detailed actions for what cities can do to rethink, reduce, rescue, and recycle food waste
Guide to Conducting Student Food Waste Audits USDA, EPA, and University of Arkansas Students; school staff Information and why and how to conduct a food waste audit. Ideas for preventing food waste in schools
Fighting Food Waste in Hotels WWF and the American Hotel and Lodging Association Hospitality industry Toolkit with information, tools, and resources to help hotel industry prevent, donate, and divert wasted food at their properties
Food Waste Warrior Toolkit WWF Students; Teachers Website with lesson plans, resources, and activities
Wasting Less Food in K–12 Settings: Best Practices for Success NRDC K–12 schools Practical steps to reduce wasted foods in school cafeterias and kitchens
Food: Too Good to Waste (FTGTW). Implementation Guide and Toolkit EPA Local governments; community organizations The implementation guide shows how to implement FTGTW using the toolkit the toolkit covers behavior change and outreach for individuals and households using community-based social marketing principles
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Title Author Target Audience Description
Food Promotions Guidance for Manufacturers and Food Promotions Guidance for Retailers WRAP Food manufacturers and retailers Guidance for developing food promotions that do not contribute to increased food waste in the grocery sector
Your Business Is Food, Don’t Throw it Away WRAP Hospitality and food service Toolkit for creating a food waste reduction action plan
Toolkit. Reducing the Food Wastage Footprint FAO Households; producers; government; food industry Provides examples of good practices for reducing food waste; also identifies food waste information sources and guidelines
Best Practices and Emerging Solutions Toolkit FWRA Retailers and food manufacturers Provides basic steps to reducing food waste while also raising the profile of the issue of food waste to a broader audience.
Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic State and local governments Toolkit describes policy areas that governments can examine as methods to reduce food waste and details the relevant federal laws
Bans and Beyond: Designing and Implementing Organic Waste Bans and Mandatory Organics Recycling Laws Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic State and local governments; regulators; advocates Toolkit is a resource for policy solutions to reduce food waste; examines policies and programs to incentivize waste reduction
Toolkit for Food Waste-Free Events The Rockefeller Foundation Businesses; hospitality industry; food service industry; community organizations; educators; consumers; governments Toolkit of best practices and strategies for reducing food waste at events (festivals, fairs, conferences, sports events, etc.)

NOTES: EPA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; FAO, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization; FUSIONS, Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies; FWRA, Food Waste Reduction Alliance; NRDC, Natural Resources Defense Council; WRAP, Waste and Resources Action Programme; WWF, World Wildlife Fund.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

that have been developed worldwide. The different products are tailored to the target many audiences, including households, policy makers, educators, hospitality industry, retailers, and community organizers.

In the United States, governments at all levels have initiatied a number of programs to help reduce food waste. Box C-1 provides examples of federal programs. The committee did not carry out a systematic identification of state and local initiatives, but received briefings on them; examples are shown in Box C-2.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

Specific examples of food waste reduction activites that are currently in use by various stakeholder groups are shown in Table C-3. For example, some food service operators have switched to trayless dining or smaller portion sizes. Food retailers are trying to reduce food waste by removing “buy one get one free offers” and technology companies are testing apps with reminders to eat purchased food before it expires.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

TABLE C-3 Examples of Ongoing Activities Targeted at Reducing Food Waste by Consumers

Organization Type Reduction Activity
Food Service Company
  • Reusable to-go food and beverage containers and trayless dining programs
  • Trayless dining
  • Sample tastes to reduce waste
  • Educational and scholarship programs
  • Menus developed with student involvement and wellness committee meetings
  • Video campaign in store checkout lanes explaining ways to save money by reducing wasted food at home
  • Trayless dining in all dining halls since 2009 reduced postconsumer food waste by 30 percent
  • Smaller portion sizes
  • More meals made to order
Food Manufacturer
  • New technology (e.g., “easy-out” technology to decrease the amount of mayonnaise that sticks in the bottle)
  • Development of different doughs that can be filled with leftover food
Food Retailer
  • Requests to suppliers to start converting to a “best if used by” date label terminology. As of February 2016, 92 percent of Walmart qualifying private brand products have adopted this new label, or have started to transition to its use
  • Removal of multi-buy offers
  • Stopped “buy one get one free” promotions on all fruit and vegetables
  • Removed “best before” dates on fruit and vegetable lines
Innovator in Food Packaging and Technology
  • Temperature sensitive, bioreactive food labels, which decay to show when a product is past its shelf life; used in stores and homes
  • Smart kitchen app with reminders to eat purchased food before it expires, creates shopping lists, and keeps track of what is in the refrigerator
  • Web-based advice on food perishability
  • Smart refrigerator that helps manage groceries
  • Foodkeeper app
  • Self-adhesive food calendar labels that show at a glance when food was first opened, stored, or frozen
Nonprofit Organizations
  • “Save the Food” public service campaign targeting moms and millennials; scalable to other consumer segments, regions, and time frames
  • Love Food Hate Waste national consumer awareness campaign; online and print.
  • Meal Prep Mate website to help consumers avoid over-purchasing and over-prepping food
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Organization Type Reduction Activity
Federal, State, and Local Government Agencies
  • Funding LeanPath software for businesses and institutions
  • Wasted food education in schools
  • Residential wasted food pilot programs
  • Websites, media campaigns, and toolkits
  • Waste audits
  • Cookbook and smart food tips developed by partnerships among local governments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and local restaurants and grocers

SOURCES: Data from U.S. Department of Agiculture Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions; ReFED; Further with Food.

REFERENCES

Bellemare, M.F., M. Cakir, H.H. Peterson, L. Novak, and J. Rudi. 2017. On the measurement of food waste. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 99(5):1148-1158.

Gillick, S., and T.E. Quested. 2018. Household Food Waste: Restated Data for 2007-2015. WRAP.

Gorski, I., S. Siddiqi, and R. Neff. 2017. Governmental Plans to Address Waste of Food. Available: https://clf.jhsph.edu/sites/default/files/2019-01/governmental-plans-to-address-waste-of-food.pdf.

Hanson, C., B. Lipinski, K. Robertson, D. Dias, I. Gavilan, P. Greverath, S. Ritter, J. Fonseca, R. VanOtterdijk, T. Timmermans, J. Lomax, A. Dawe, V. Berger, M. Reddy, D. Somogyi, B. Tran, B. Leach, and T.E. Quested. 2016. Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard. Available: https://flwprotocol.org.

ICF. 2016. Massachusetts Commercial Food Waste Ban. Economic Impact Analysis. Available: https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-commercial-food-waste-ban-economic-impact-analysis/download.

McDermott, C., D. Elliott, A. Johnson, K. Hunter, and C. de Venecia. 2018. 2017 Oregon Wasted Food Study: Residential Sector Waste Sort, Diary, and Survey Study. Available: https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/Documents/ResKitchenDiarySurvey.pdf.

Moreno, L.C., T. Tran, and M.D. Potts. 2020. Consider a broccoli stalk: How the concept of edibility influences quantification of household food waste. Journal of Environmental Management 256:109977.

Nicholes, M.J., T.E. Quested, C. Reynolds, S. Gillick, and A.D. Parry. 2019. Surely you don’t eat parsnip skins? Categorising the edibility of food waste. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 147:179-188.

Östergren, K., J. Gustavsson, H. Bos-Brouwers, T. Timmermans, O.-J. Hansen, H. Møller, G. Anderson, C. O’Connor, H. Soethoudt, T. Netherlands, T. Quested, S. Easteal, A. Politano, C. Bellettato, M. Canali, L. Falasconi, S. Gaiani, M. Vittuari, F. Schneider, and B. Redlingshöfer. 2014. FUSIONS Definitional Framework for Food Waste. Full Report. Available: https://www.eu-fusions.org/phocadownload/Publications/FUSIONS%20Definitional%20Framework%20for%20Food%20Waste%202014.pdf.

Quested, T.E. 2019. Guidance for Evaluating Interventions Preventing Household Food Waste. Refresh Report. Available: https://eu-refresh.org/guidance-evaluating-interventions-preventing-household-food-waste.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

Roodhuyzen, D.M.A., P.A. Luning, V. Fogliano, and L.P.A. Steenbekkers. 2017. Putting together the puzzle of consumer food waste: Towards an integral perspective. Trends in Food Science & Technology 68:37-50.

Spang, E.S., L.C. Moreno, S.A. Pace, Y. Achmon, I. Donis-Gonzalez, W.A. Gosliner, M.P. Jablonski-Sheffield, M.A. Momin, T.E. Quested, K.S. Winans, and T.P. Tomich. 2019. Food loss and waste: Measurement, drivers, and solutions. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 44(1):117-156.

Stefan, V., A.A. Tudoran, E. van Herpen, and L. Lahteenmaki. 2013. Avoiding food waste by Romanian consumers: The importance of planning and shopping routines. Food Quality and Preference 28(1):375-381.

Thompson, F.E., and A.F. Subar. 2001. Dietary assessment methodology. In Nutrition in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, C.L. Rock and E.R. Monsen, Eds. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Pp. 3-30.

Tostivint, C., K. Östergren, T.E. Quested, H. Soethoudt, A. Stenmarck, E. Svanes, and C. O’Connor. 2016. Food Waste Quantification Manual to Monitor Food Waste Amounts and Progression. Available: http://www.eu-fusions.org/phocadownload/Publications/Food%20waste%20quantification%20manual%20to%20monitor%20food%20waste%20amounts%20and%20progression.pdf.

van Herpen, E., I.A. van der Lans, N. Holthuysen, M. Nijenhuis-de Vries, and T.E. Quested. 2019. Comparing wasted apples and oranges: An assessment of methods to measure household food waste. Waste Management 88(88):71-84.

Visschers, V.H.M., N. Wickli, and M. Siegrist. 2016. Sorting out food waste behaviour: A survey on the motivators and barriers of self-reported amounts of food waste in households. Journal of Environmental Psychology 45:66-78.

Xue, L., G. Liu, J. Parfitt, X. Liu, E. Van Herpen, A. Stenmarck, C. O’Connor, K. Östergren, and S. Cheng. 2017. Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data. Environmental Science & Technology 51(12):6618-6633.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 181
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 182
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 183
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 184
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 185
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 186
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 187
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 188
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 189
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 190
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 191
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 192
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 193
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Additional Information on Food Waste." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25876.
×
Page 194
Next: Appendix D: Interventions to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level: Examples from the Literature »
A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $70.00 Buy Ebook | $54.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Approximately 30 percent of the edible food produced in the United States is wasted and a significant portion of this waste occurs at the consumer level. Despite food's essential role as a source of nutrients and energy and its emotional and cultural importance, U.S. consumers waste an estimated average of 1 pound of food per person per day at home and in places where they buy and consume food away from home. Many factors contribute to this waste—consumers behaviors are shaped not only by individual and interpersonal factors but also by influences within the food system, such as policies, food marketing and the media. Some food waste is unavoidable, and there is substantial variation in how food waste and its impacts are defined and measured. But there is no doubt that the consequences of food waste are severe: the wasting of food is costly to consumers, depletes natural resources, and degrades the environment. In addition, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained the U.S. economy and sharply increased food insecurity, it is predicted that food waste will worsen in the short term because of both supply chain disruptions and the closures of food businesses that affect the way people eat and the types of food they can afford.

A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level identifies strategies for changing consumer behavior, considering interactions and feedbacks within the food system. It explores the reasons food is wasted in the United States, including the characteristics of the complex systems through which food is produced, marketed, and sold, as well as the many other interconnected influences on consumers' conscious and unconscious choices about purchasing, preparing, consuming, storing, and discarding food. This report presents a strategy for addressing the challenge of reducing food waste at the consumer level from a holistic, systems perspective.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!