Some is wasted before it gets to the consumer's home (at processor, store, etc.). Some is wasted in the home. Some is wasted at commercial and institutional food service sites.
These estimates of cost are from the EPA and USDA. They factor in a portion of the costs from outside the home, to get a cost per household:
- 40% of all food produced in this country is wasted
- 133 billion pounds per year, $161 billion/year
- $1500/year for a family of four; which works out to over 1200 calories/day per person.
This doesn't just waste money, but it also causes other concerns: By weight, 20% of land fill waste is food. As that decomposes, it produces methane, which is more powerful than carbon dioxide in creating the greenhouse affect that is changing our climate.
++What you can do:
- Ask for smaller portion sizes when dining out - or be sure what's in that doggie bag will be eaten. Watch for portions sizes when eating at home or with friends.
- Love your left-overs. Plan for ways to use them before they go bad.
- Plan meals and write a shopping list. Stick to it. Pre-planning meals can also reduce stress.
- Buy the "uglies." For example, if a piece of fruit is an odd shape, but you are going to chop it up before serving, shape doesn't matter. If you don't buy it, it may start to soften instead of beng sold and get thrown away. Sometimes, these are sold at a discount. By the way, the fruit peel can be composted. You can get information on how to do that from the EPA website or your local Cooperative Extension.
- Check your refrigerator temperature. For best shelf-life and food safety, it should be 34-41°F (1-5°C). And, don't overfill your refrigerator to the point that the door is hard to close. This makes it hard to hold the temperature and causes it to run longer per cycle, costing you for electricity.
- FIFO - first in, first out - rotate your stock when you are storing groceries so some food doesn't get shoved to the back so long that it spoils before you notice.
- Interpret dates: "Sell by," "Use by," and "Best by" mean 3 different things. You can contact the manufacturer to learn how dates are determined for a product - the contact information is usually on the label.
