Originally published by Traceone.
Between 30% and 40% of the nation’s food supply is wasted annually, translating to millions of tons—and billions of dollars—lost. While sectors like food service and farms each generate over 10 million tons of food waste annually, U.S. households are the largest contributors, producing more than 42 million tons of food waste each year. This not only contributes to air pollution, soil and water degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions but also impacts household budgets.
Researchers calculated the annual money lost to food waste per household, and then ranked states accordingly.
These are the main takeaways from the report, highlighting some key stats for Maryland:
- On average, U.S. households lose more than $2,000 per year to food waste, while individuals lose an average of $792—the equivalent of 214 meals.
- Overwhelmingly, the primary cause of food waste in the residential sector is spoilage, accounting for $69.8 billion of waste each year. Other potential food safety issues like leaving food out too long or food mistakenly being considered inedible also rank highly as causes of waste.
- Prepared foods ($70.9 billion), dry goods ($49.5 billion), and produce ($42.8 billion) are the types of foods with the most money lost to waste each year by U.S. households.
- Individuals in Maryland lose an average of $853 to food waste each year. This equates to about 216 meals annually.
- On average, Maryland households lose $2,213 to food waste each year—the 15th most money of any U.S. state.
Below is a complete data breakout for Maryland. The full results of the analysis include data on all 50 states.
