Study: Households Waste Nearly A Third of the Food They Acquire

American households waste, on average, almost a third of the food they acquire, according to economists, who say this wasted food has an estimated aggregate value of $240 billion annually.

Divided among the nearly 128.6 million U.S. households, this waste could be costing the average household about $1,866 per year.

This inefficiency in the food economy has implications for health, food security, food marketing and climate change, noted Edward Jaenicke, professor of agricultural economics in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.

“Our findings are consistent with previous studies,...