Understanding & Reducing Consumer Food Waste

Working to Address the Food Systems
Working to Address the Food Systems

Program Contact

Grants Team

grants@foundationfar.org

Photo of Dr. Toby Warden

Dr. Toby Warden

National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Year Awarded  2019

FFAR award amount   $336,000

Total award amount   $673,000

Location   Washington, D.C.

Matching Funders   Walmart Foundation

Grantee Institution   National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

  • Food Systems

What Challenge Is This Research Grant Tackling?

Reducing consumer food waste at the consumer level can lessen food insecurity, improve diets, save consumers money, mitigate climate change and raise awareness about the value of food.

Consumers’ food habits are driven by their social networks, the media, the food marketing industry and government policies. Thus, efforts to reduce consumer food waste must involve changes across the entire food system, social networks and the media – not just individual habits.

To better understand consumer food waste, we invested in a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (National Academies) study to identify how consumers behave toward food and opportunities for system changes. The multidisciplinary, expert committee conducting the study, chaired by University of California, Davis Professor Emerita Dr. Barbara O. Schneeman, examined existing data, information and research on consumer food waste.

The resulting report includes recommendations that institutions – such as industry associations, schools and government agencies – can implement to help consumers reduce their food waste.

Why Is This Research Important?

Each U.S. consumer wastes, on average, a pound of food every day. Food waste is not only a financial loss, but it also creates a loss of nutrients and a loss of the inputs that went into growing the food.

Reducing food waste offers significant benefits:

Environmental benefits

  • Reducing greenhouse gases from rotting food
  • Protecting valuable production resources

Farmer benefits

  • Reducing spoilage by better targeting markets
  • Saving human resources in the form of farm labor

Retailer benefits

  • Reducing financial loss from spoiled products

Consumer benefits

  • Saving money and time and reducing food insecurity
  • Developing healthier eating habits.

Research Details

The National Academies committee’s holistic approach to understanding the causes of food waste identified interventions that state and federal governments, the food industry, commercial entities, nonprofit and volunteer organizations, educational institutions and foundations can implement to encourage responsible food decisions.

The committee’s objectives included:

  • Reviewing the existing data, information and research on consumer food waste, including assessments of effectiveness for past and current and reduction efforts.
  • Making actionable recommendations for research directions and food waste reduction strategies.
  • Identifying implementation strategies to reduce wasted food at the consumer level.
  • Examining food system modifications that can change attitudes and habits. For example, the committee considered what motivations and tools help consumers reduce their food waste.
array(1) {
  ["latest"]=>
  array(3) {
    ["tax"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      string(3) "198"
    }
    ["research"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["title"]=>
      string(0) ""
      ["image"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["promo_text"]=>
      string(37) "Read the latest project breakthroughs"
    }
    ["latest"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["title"]=>
      string(10) "The Latest"
      ["sections_show"]=>
      array(4) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "insights"
        [1]=>
        string(4) "news"
        [2]=>
        string(6) "events"
        [3]=>
        string(13) "breakthroughs"
      }
      ["additional_past_events"]=>
      string(0) ""
    }
  }
}

The Latest

Insights

Our Insights highlight unique perspectives from across the food and agriculture community.

See all Insights

Illuminating Pest Management with the Help of the Washington State Wine Commission

Alexa McDaniel

FFAR Fellow, Washington State University

National Nutrition Month: FFAR’s Bold Solutions Addressing Food Insecurity

Dr. Constance Gewa

Senior Program Director

Engineering Beneficial Bacteria to Improve Human Health

FFAR Fellow, Echo Pan

The Map of Food: Why We Need a World Atlas of What We Eat

Nancy Brown

Every Day is Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Dr. Kim Paul, Dr. Kristin Ruppel

Founder of the Piikani Lodge Health InstituteProfessor of Native American Studies in the College of Letters and Science and director of MSU’s Native Land Project

PIP is Pioneering Indoor Agriculture Collaborations

John Reich, Ph.D.

Scientific Program Director Bolstering Healthy Food Systems

Feedback Loops & Food Access

Gwendolyn Donley

2019-2022 FFAR Fellow

News

The latest news and updates from FFAR.

See all News

FFAR Grant to Improve Sorghum & Strengthen Nutritional Security

Advancing Circular Bioeconomy with Biomass Feedstocks

Student Teams Combat Climate Change

FFAR & NWO Launch Greenhouses in Transition & Welcome Proposals

FFAR Accepting Applications for Harvest for Health Breakthrough Crop Challenge

FFAR Grant Unites Urban Agriculture Operations to Increase Food Security

Researchers Investigate the Promise of Food Procurement

Pairing Regenerative Farming and Solar Energy Production to Improve Urban Resilience

FFAR Announces Harvest for Health Prize Criteria

FFAR Grant Develops Premium Strawberry Flavors for Indoor Growing Environments

FFAR Program Develops Underutilized Crops

FFAR & Schmidt Futures Release Report to Advance a Circular U.S. Bioeconomy

Grant Aims to Reduce Food Waste

FFAR, NPB Seek to Improve Air Quality on Pig Farms

FFAR & WUR Launch Nature-Based Future Challenge

FFAR Grant Tackles Peanut Allergy

FFAR Grant Advances Equitable Food Access

FFAR Grant Addresses Food Waste Reduction Challenges

FFAR-Funded Periodic Table of Food Initiative to Standardize Food Analysis

FFAR & NPB Focus on Continuous Air Quality Improvement Efforts

Breakthroughs

Tools, technologies and strategies from the research we fund.

See all Breakthroughs

Loyalty Shopper Card Intervention Creates Behavior Change

Breakthrough for Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Increased Fiber, Same Great Taste

Breakthrough for Increasing Dietary Fiber in Wheat Crop

Connecting Growers & Markets

Breakthrough for FFAR Grant Develops Tools to Predict Consumer Demand, Reduce Food Waste

ID: DFs-18-0000000011

Want to do more to support our pioneering research?