"‘Programs encouraging healthy diets may unintentionally lead to more waste.’ …
… ‘Based on our estimation, the average American household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires,’ Jaenicke says. ‘More than two-thirds of households in our study have food-waste estimates of between 20% and 50%. However, even the least wasteful household wastes 8.7% of the food it acquires.’" …
https://www.studyfinds.org/american-households-waste-nearly-a-third-of-their-food-study-finds/
LOTS of waste occurs in the food chain before you get your food home.
I must shop/cook/eat differently than most because those household waste percentages seem very high.
Those numbers seem high to me as well. At the same time, as we age, we’re eating less (and of course not having teens in the house cuts way down on food consumption!), and I’m struggling with dealing with the cycle of leftovers. But we throw out very little food in general.
“The researchers then calculated the difference between the amount of food acquired by each household and the amount needed to maintain body weight. This difference represented the production inefficiency in the model, ultimately indicating the amount of uneaten, wasted food.”
Did they account for the fact that we can’t physically consume or do not normally consume 100% of what we buy? Peel your potatoes or root veggies? That’s waste. Eat artichokes? That’s even bigger waste. 
Here’s what I noticed get tossed in our house. Not leftover as that often becomes my work lunch. Not to blame, but it’s H fruit and lunch meat. He goes to the store, buys some fruit and lunch meat…then ends up not eating it because other stuff looks better or he’s eating take out.
I can’t control what he buys - or eats. But I can guarantee you we are not throwing out bags of chips because they are no good. 
I am frustrated when I throw away a pound or more of grapes that just were ignored (I buy my own fruit - and I eat it! )
Oh the apple is no longer “crisp”? Toss it. There is a blemish on the eggplant? Toss it. The mentality that only the “freshest” food will do leads to waste. Sure, the stawberries that became moldy have to go, but why throw out the entire eggplant when the blemish can be cut out and the rest cooked and eaten just fine.
@abasket Where does your H store his fruit and lunch meat? If they are in the same refrigerator you use, can you ask him if you can eat them before they go bad?
I love fruit. I will take your H’s forgotten grapes!!
^^^ It’s not that I can’t eat it - but he tends to buy stuff I don’t eat…which I guess is why he is buying it! I don’t eat lunch meat and he buys fruit like green grapes (can’t do the texture) that I do not eat (I literally eat SO many other fruits though!)
Frozen grapes are really good. Little grapesicles.
Nope, the thought of biting into a frozen grape - yikes (texture again). Also why should I eat his past prime fruit?!
I mean, put it in the freezer for him. Still tastes good and doesn’t waste.
I freeze fruit for smoothies. My Nutribullet gets a ton of use, both with smoothies and just regular cooking.
I don’t think we are at 30% but we definitely have some room for improvement. I’m trying to find a good balance here that doesn’t require going to the market constantly.
“The researchers then calculated the difference between the amount of food acquired by each household and the amount needed to maintain body weight. This difference represented the production inefficiency in the model, ultimately indicating the amount of uneaten, wasted food.”
It seems to me if this was how they measured, it includes overeating in the “waste” tally. If I require 1200 calories per day and eat 1600, it sounds like I would be counted as having had wasted 400 calories or 30%.
I’m not saying that actual waste isn’t a real problem, it is, but that could be why that 30% number seems so surprising, and why American numbers are high. And, @BunsenBurner’s point stands too and would explain why the waste rates are even higher for households consuming lots of produce.
I hate to admit it but 32% waste sounds about right in my household.
As an example, the Rotisserie chicken at Costco only costs about 6 bucks. Once in a while, too lazy to cook, hubby picked it up for dinner for the 3 of us while shopping at Costco. The boys made sandwiches, I had a leg or 2 with some green. The rest pretty much went to the trash either immediately or the next few days. No one would eat it again.
We only used 1/3 of the potatoes from the bag we got at Costco before they sprouted and looked distrusting and had to throw them out.
Every year I throw away expired canned food more than we actually consumed in a year.
Ugh I feel sick!
IMO, that’s one of the problems with Costco - large quantities that often don’t get eaten (plus lots of packaging).
@Nhatrang Perhaps set a reminder on your phone/calendar to go through your pantry every 6 months/year. Canned stuff can easily be donated to a local food pantry and would be much appreciated.
So many ways to transform cooked chicken into something tasty and different. Soup is an easy one.
I feel like H and I are pretty good when we are alone. When D is home she comes with me to the market, asks for a bunch of stuff, and then it doesn’t get eaten. We threw out a bunch of stuff after she went back to school that was way out of date
“IMO, that’s one of the problems with Costco - large quantities that often don’t get eaten (plus lots of packaging).”
Not ever an issue in our household of 2. We buy and eat the entire bag of garlic or onions or potatoes. One just needs to know how to store produce properly. Right now, I have a bag of potatoes in a dark container sitting outside on the deck… Onions are there as well. They are just as good as they were a week ago we bought them, and they will be OK for a few more weeks until we finish them.
We do eat a lot of vegetables. Chips and snacks - not so much.
Agreed @doschicos I’ll try. I have to do something about the other stuff too. I love our groceries store Wegman. I bought a lot of ready made food from them, but usually consume half or 2/3. I hate running out of food, old habits die hard.
Or account for people who consume more than needed to maintain body weight? Perhaps the “excess” food is going to waist instead of going to waste.
One can argue that food going to waist can cause other problems, though.
I’ve gotten much better. I buy less and I’ve made a mindful effort to not waste as much food. I know I’ve been guilty of buying things at Costco in a large amount because I don’t want to make another stop and the Costco bag is the same price as the small bag at the market. One thing I do do now is take the Costco or any chicken bones and stick them in the freezer to make broth in the Instapot. Same can be done with vegetables that are wilting. You can also roast vegetables that might not look fresh enough for a salad but are fine cooked. I do find that the garlic and potatoes from Costco usually go bad before I finish. I’m open to suggestions for better storage methods. Today I’m carmelizing a bunch of sweet onions before they sprout. I’ll refrigerate them and use them on grain bowls.
We are the worst with crackers, cereal and things that can go stale. I live close to the ocean and if things are properly sealed they go soggy and stale very quickly. We don’t eat much of that type of food now that the kids are grown so I’m throwing away less when I clean the pantry.