FOOD WASTED

How much food is wasted in the United States? 

In the latest study available, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a report in 1997 on its study that looked at food waste throughout the country at the retail, consumer and food service levels only. The study found that of the 356 billion pounds of food available for human consumption in a year in the U.S., 27 percent, or 96 billion pounds, of edible food had gone to waste. This did not include the amount of food that growers, processors, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors had discarded for various reasons.