Sagarika Srivastava, a PhD research assistant at the Waste Data and Analysis Center (WDAC), and Dr. David Tonjes, founder of WDAC, have co-authored a new research paper published in Detritus journal. Titled “Food Waste Crisis in the United States of America: The Known, the Overlooked, and the Undisclosed”, the paper examines the scale and complexity of food waste in the United States and proposes actionable solutions to address it.
The study highlights that the U.S. loses approximately 1,250 calories per person per day, or 140 kg per person per year, in food waste. While much attention is given to food waste at the retail and consumer levels, the study emphasizes that substantial losses also occur earlier in the supply chain, including during production, harvesting, transportation, and processing.
Conducted in two phases, the research began with a bibliometric analysis of 218 U.S. based food waste studies, followed by a policy evaluation using the Criteria Analysis Matrix method. Sagarika and Dr. Tonjes identified three promising strategies to reduce food waste in the U.S.: (1) Secondary retail food stores (2) Enhanced tax credits (3) A multi-stakeholder task force.
Among these, the creation of a non-governmental, multi-modal Task Force emerged as the most effective policy option, offering a cost-efficient and scalable approach to raising awareness and promoting behavioral change among consumers.
Congratulations to Sagarika and Dr. Tonjes on this important contribution to food waste research!