Sarah Kakadellis, University of California, Davis – States Unlikely To Meet U.S. Food Waste Reduction Goal

Federal food waste reduction goals are proving hard for states to meet.

Sarah Kakadellis, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, explains why.

Kakadellis’ research addresses the significant yet mostly untapped potential of food loss and waste solutions for the design of sustainable, circular, and resilient food systems. She is particularly interested in assessing the environmental and social dimensions of food waste reduction policies and technology adoption. She holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, an M.Sc. in Environmental Technology, and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environmental Policy. Sarah is also a keen science communicator and is committed to bringing her research to policymakers and the public through outreach activities.

States Unlikely To Meet U.S. Food Waste Reduction Goal

One third of all food produced in the world is either lost or wasted. Food waste is responsible for up to 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. At the same time, some 18 million households faced food insecurity in 2023 in the United States alone.

To address this, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Food and Agriculture set a goal to cut national food waste in half by 2030. That would mean reducing the amount of food waste a person generates in a year down to a 164 pounds. Achieving this goal relies on policies implemented by individual states across the nation. But how effective are these policies, and are states on track to reach the federal goal?

To answer these questions, we partnered with non-profit ReFED and developed a model to quantify how much food waste could be reduced based on four broad policy categories. They include preventing and rescuing food, repurposing food for other uses like animal feed, and recycling.

Our analysis shows that based on state policies alone, no state can meet the federal target. Instead, we found that overall, states could only divert as much as 30 pounds per person. This is mainly due to the overwhelming emphasis that states place on recycling strategies. By definition, recycling does not contribute towards reducing food waste generation. Without a shift to prevention, rescue and repurposing, food waste generation in the US is likely to remain high.