The study, from the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA), Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the National Restaurant Association (NRA), is the first comprehensive assessment of food waste data collected directly from the food industry.
“What’s frightening about this number is that it only accounts for food waste from companies, not consumers who throw away nearly 20 pounds of food per person per month,” said Phil Lempert, founder of Food Nutrition & Science and CEO of The Lempert Report. “Everyone in the food chain, from growers and manufacturers to retailers and consumers, have to figure out how to decrease the waste and get these staggering numbers down.”
The manufacturing sector disposed of 2.4 billion pounds, while the retail and wholesale sectors disposed of 1.7 billion pounds. Fortunately, only a small amount of waste ends up in landfills, while 73% is converted to animal feed, and 20% is reused as fertilizer.
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