Study: Food companies disposed of 4 billion pounds of food
Food manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers together disposed of 4.1 billion pounds of food waste in the United States in 2011, according to a new study from the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA), Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the National Restaurant Association (NRA). This study 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," says 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."