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Issue Brief
3/28/26
Reducing Food Waste in American Grocery Stores
The Problem
In the United States, 30 to 40% of the food
supply is wasted.1 This means that 20 pounds of
food is thrown away for each American in the
United States each year. Furthermore, according to
the United States Department of Agriculture,
Figure 1
American food waste accounts for 161.6 billion
dollars’ worth of food and 141 trillion calories each year.2 Not only is this food waste resulting
in huge losses, but it is also filling up the nation’s landfills. Over 30 million tons of food waste
is sent to landfills each year, making it the
second largest contributor of municipal solid
waste.3 To send this food to landfills costs
around 1.3 billion dollars annually, as
estimated by The Journal of Consumer
Affairs.4
There are five points at which food is
lost along the supply chain, with the largest
being food lost by the consumer, as seen in
Figure 2. Although the main cause of food
waste in the United States can be
Figure 2
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contributed directly to the consumers, reducing food waste at that level requires participation
from the entire United States population. Implementing policies on an individualistic scale is
much more difficult, and involves an entire culture change in the way Americans view the
overabundance of resources most have access to.
However, tackling food waste at the store level is much more doable, and still very
impactful. 10% of all food waste in America can be contributed to grocery stores.5 This equates
to a wasted 16 billion dollars and 14 trillion calories a year. Scattered around the United States,
there are over 36,500 large supermarkets with annual sales over two million dollars, and over
148,000 smaller convenience stores.6 These stories typically carry anywhere between 15,000
and 60,000 products, most of which are bought in excess in order to keep shelves fully stocked.
Therefore, unlike consumer food waste, most of the food waste at the store level is perfectly
fresh and edible when it is thrown out.
Oftentimes, food is disposed of because the stores over purchase food in order to
overstock their shelves, and they simply have more food than they can sell. In addition, produce
that has cosmetic imperfections, such as weird shapes or
growths, never even make it to the shelves. This
accounts for about 26% of all produce sent to the
grocers.7 Even when the food itself is completely fine,
Figure 3
food in damaged packaging is also thrown away, as it is
less appealing to the consumer. Furthermore, many supermarkets stop selling food before it even
reaches its “sell-by-date”. Many Americans, and even grocers, live under the misconception that
a “sell-by-date” is an expiration date, however food doesn’t expire for many days, if not weeks,
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past the sell-by-date.8 Therefore, grocery stores are not only responsible for 10% of American
food waste, but this food is mostly food that is still ready for consumption.
In our country alone, 1 in 6 Americans face
hunger.9 In addition, 1 in 7 people in the United States
are enrolled in The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAPS).10 This program, formally known
as the Food Stamps Program, cost the United States
Figure 4
$75 billion in 2015, with about 93% of that total going directly towards benefits that households
used to purchase food.11 SNAP benefits are
meant to buy nutritious food for the
household, such as fruits and vegetables,
meat, and dairy, while at the same time, the
three main food groups being thrown into the
trash by supermarkets are meat, poultry and
Figure 5
fish, fruits and vegetables, and dairy
products.12 SNAP is only one of multiple programs, such as The National School Lunch
Program and The Emergency Food Assistance Program, developed by the US government to
reduce hunger and provide food to needy Americans, all of which are being funded by the
government themselves.13
Solution
If this food that was destined for the trash was donated to a local food bank or charity,
the government could potentially save billions on food welfare programs and landfill costs, and
instead reroute food destined for waste to those who could use it. This food, as referenced
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above, is already scattered throughout the United States, and would only require minimal
redistribution. Therefore, food waste at the supermarket level would be drastically reduced,
minimizing negative environmental effects such as filling up landfills and creating methane gas,
while at the same time maximizing benefits by reducing, if not eliminating, hunger in the United
States. In addition, the money saved on current food programs and landfill costs could go
towards improving food recovery programs, further reducing the amount of food wasted at the
distribution level.
To reduce grocery store food waste, grocery stores should donate their excess food to
charities or organizations that provide food services to hungry Americans. Some grocery stores
in the United States are already donating their excess food, however the percentage doing so is
very small. To increase the number of grocery stores doing this, two main steps should be
taken. First, the United States government should develop a mandatory informational course that
large grocery store bosses and management are required to take. The online course should be
geared towards promoting excess food donations among key chain grocery stores by providing
information that dispels the main myths about food donations. In addition, the online course
should explain the ways to enter into a relationship with a local organization, and should also
provide information about nonprofit organizations that are currently working to foster this
charity-grocery store relationship. Finally, the course should explain the tax benefits available to
the store if they decide to take part in food donations.
Secondly, money typically used to fund programs such as SNAP should be rerouted to
assist both local and national nonprofit organizations who help with food recovery. The
government should assist these already existing organizations so that they are able to expand
their mission. In addition, stores themselves should be able to apply for grant funding from the
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government for costs related to enhancing food donation systems. This could include money
used to install extra freezers, refrigerators, and shelving to store the extra food, or to hire one or
more employees to help facilitate this food donation.
France recently passed a law stating that, “[Supermarkets] with a footprint of 4,305 sq ft
(400 sq m) or more will have to sign contracts with charities by July next year or face penalties
including fines of up to €75,000 ($86,000) or two years in jail.14 These contracts hold grocers
liable for donating their unsold, edible food to a local charity, or in the case of less fresh food,
they are able to donate it as animal feed. Jacques Bailet, head of Banques Alimentaires, which is
a network of French food banks, argues that the best part of this law is that food banks will now
be able to offer a much wider variety of foods, including meats, fruits, and vegetables, which will
greatly improve the nutritional balance of the citizens they serve.15 In addition, he says the small
country of France should not be able to offer more than 10 million more meals a year with only a
15% increase in food donations caused by this law. The United States should follow the steps
taken by France, except instead of enacting a law, they should simply create a program to
encourage and expand food donations across the country. When or if issues arose in this three
step plan to reduce food waste, the United States could turn to the French program for guidance.
One of the main reasons such a small percentage of supermarkets are donating their food
waste is because they are uniformed about the options available and believe a variety of myths
associated with such donations. Patty Larson, executive director of the food rescue group Food
Finders, argues that liability is the biggest reason cited by stores as to why they aren’t donating
their excess food.16 Many stores believe that if someone gets sick off their food, or if somehow
good food spoils before reaching the charity, that they could get sued. However, the Bill
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Emerson Good Samaritan Donation Act is already in place to protect these vendors. Passed in
1996 by Congress, the law states that,
A person or gleaner [or nonprofit organization] shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability
arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently whole- some food or an
apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit
organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.17
Educating grocery stores about this law that is already in place to protect them from
being held liable would be a huge first step in increasing the amount of stores who donate their
excess food.
Furthermore, many stores believe that it would cost them a lot of extra money to donate
their excess food. However, the United States already provides tax benefits to businesses that
are participating in food donations, which many stores are unaware of. Internal Revenue Code
170(e)3 “provides enhanced tax deductions to businesses to encourage donations of fit and
wholesome food to qualified nonprofit organizations serving the poor and needy.”18
Furthermore, the code states that, “Qualified business taxpayers can deduct the cost to produce
the food and half the difference between the cost and full fair market value of the donated food.”
Therefore, this tax cut combined with supplemental grant money should be able to cover the full
cost of food donations on the supermarket’s side. If a store knew that they would not have to
lose money to implement a food recovery program, they would be much more likely to
participate and partner with a charity.
Another reason many stores aren’t currently participating in food recovery is because of
logistical problems. It is often times difficult for stores and organizations to coordinate the
storage of excess food until pickup, and to transport this food from the store to the
charity. However, there are already many organizations in place to assist with this food transport
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in situations where the store and/or charity cannot find a simple method to do so. One of the
largest organizations that does so in
the United States is Feeding
America. Feeding America food
banks collect excess food and then
Figure 6
distributes it to more than 60,000
food pantries and meal programs across the country.19 In addition, there are hundreds of smaller
organizations through the country doing the same thing, such as Food Finders, which is a local
organization working out of Los Angeles and Orange County in California, and DC Kitchen in
Washington, DC to name a few.20 The informational program should include a database of these
charities and resources for contacting these programs.
In addition, the government should reroute funds and financially support organizations
such as these so that they are able to expand their efforts. Although there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of nonprofit food recovery organizations nationwide, many of them lack the funds
necessary to deal with large grocers or large quantities of food. In September of 2015,
“Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Deputy
Administrator Stan Meiburg announced the United
States’ first-ever national food loss and waste goal,
calling for a 50-percent reduction by 2030.”21 The US
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Food
Recovery Challenge invites participants, including
supermarkets and nonprofits, to commit to reducing
food waste through multiple facets, one of which
Figure 7
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being food donation.22 In 2014, 800 groups participated and were able to donate 88,500 tons of
food.23 However, these participants, although organized, did not receive any funding from the
EPA. If money was redistributed to the EPA and they were able to financially support the
grocers and nonprofit third parties, more groups would be able to get involved, eliminated food
waste and feeding hungry Americans.
Implementing a program that educates supermarkets about food donation options while at
the same time financially supporting them would drastically increase food donation rates. There
are currently organizations that have partnered with stores and are successfully redistributing this
food, including American organizations and France as a whole, however the United States needs
to expand these programs and turn food donation into something every supermarket in America
is taking part in.
1
Jacobs, Harrison. "Why Grocery Stores Like Trader Joe's Throw Out So Much Perfectly Good
Food." Business Insider. N.p., 5 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
2
Buzby, Jean C., Hodan F. Wells, and Jeffrey Hyman. The Estimated Amount, Value, and
Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States,
EIB-121, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, February 2014.
3
"Turning Food Waste into Energy at the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)." EPA.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
4
Buzby, Jean C., et al. The Value of Retail- and Consumer-Level Fruit and Vegetable Losses in
the United States. N.p.: The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2011. Print.
5
Jacobs, Harrison. "Here's Why Wasted Food Doesn't Get To Poor People." Business Insider.
Business Insider, Inc, 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
9
6
"Retail." End Food Waste Now. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
7
"Ugly Fruit & Veg." EndFoodWaste.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
8
Jacobs, Harrison. "Why Grocery Stores Like Trader Joe's Throw Out So Much Perfectly Good
Food." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
9
"11 Facts About Hunger in the US." 11 Facts About Hunger in the US. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr.
2016.
10
"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)." Eligible Food Items. N.p., n.d. Web.
11 Apr. 2016.
11
"Policy Basics: Introduction to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)."
Policy Basics: Introduction to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). N.p., n.d.
Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
12
Gunders, Dana. Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to
Fork to Landfill. N.p.: NRDC, 2012. Print.
13
"Federal Food Assistance Programs." Feeding America. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
14
Chrisafis, Angelique. "France to Force Big Supermarkets to Give Unsold Food to Charities."
The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 22 May 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
15
Chrisafis, Angelique. "French Law Forbids Food Waste by Supermarkets." The Guardian.
Guardian News and Media, 04 Feb. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
16
Jacobs, Harrison. "Here's Why Wasted Food Doesn't Get To Poor People." Business Insider.
Business Insider, Inc, 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
17
"Public Law 108-197 108th Congress." PsycEXTRA Dataset (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
18
"USDA | OCE | U.S. Food Waste Challenge | Resources | Recovery/Donations." USDA | OCE
| U.S. Food Waste Challenge | Resources | Recovery/Donations. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
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19
"How We Work." Feeding America. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
20
"12 Organizations Fighting Food Waste around the Globe." Inhabitat Green Design
Innovation Architecture Green Building. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
21
"U.S. Food Waste Challenge | FAQ's." United States Department of Agriculture. N.p., n.d.
Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
22
U.S. EPA Food Recovery Challenge. San Francisco: The United States Environmental
Protection Agency, 2012. Print.
23
"Food Recovery Challenge Results and Award Winners." EPA. Environmental Protection
Agency, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.