Household food waste is measured differently across countries and studies, but the available evidence shows a large consumer-level stream with substantial edible losses, financial costs and modeled environmental impacts. The figures below identify the geography, measurement period, definition and estimate type so household-only results are not confused with broader food-system totals.
Key Household Food Waste Statistics
The most broadly useful figures include:
- In 2022, households generated an estimated 631 million tonnes of food waste globally, including edible and inedible parts.
- In 2022, global food waste across retail, food service and households was estimated at 1.05 billion tonnes.
- In 2022, the global consumer-level total equaled an estimated 132 kilograms per person per year.
- In 2022, food waste represented an estimated 19% of food available to consumers globally.
- In 2022, households worldwide wasted more than 1 billion meals per day, according to the UNEP press-release translation of its estimate.
- In 2022, modeled household food-waste averages across three income groups differed by only 7 kilograms per person.
- In 2022, food waste contributed an estimated 8–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, covering food waste broadly rather than households alone.
- In 2022, the global economic cost of food waste was estimated at around $1 trillion annually.
- In 2022, EU households accounted for 54% of food waste, or 72 kilograms per inhabitant.
- In 2022, EU countries generated 59.2 million tonnes of food waste across reported sectors.
- In 2021, UK households generated an estimated 6.4 million tonnes of food waste.
- In 2021/22, 74% of UK household food waste, or 4.7 million tonnes, was estimated to be edible.
- In 2021/22, edible UK household food waste was estimated to cost about £17 billion per year.
- In 2019, the U.S. residential sector generated an estimated 26.5 million short tons of wasted food.
- In 2019, 66.2% of U.S. residential wasted food was estimated to go to landfills.
- In 2010, 133 billion pounds, or 31% of food available at U.S. retail and consumer levels, went uneaten.
- During 2007–2014, U.S. consumers were estimated to discard almost 422 grams of food per person per day.
- During 2007–2014, modeled U.S. consumer food waste equaled an estimated 30% of daily calories consumed.
Contents
- Global household food waste scale and trends
- EU household food waste data and sector comparisons
- UK household food waste volumes, edible shares and costs
- U.S. household food waste generation and disposal
- Food types, causes and consumer concerns
- Climate, land, water and reduction outcomes
Global Household Food Waste Scale and Trends
The UNEP Food Waste Index press release estimates that households generated 631 million tonnes of food waste globally in 2022. That was 60% of the estimated 1.05 billion tonnes generated across retail, food service and households, and the figures include edible and inedible parts.
UNEP also reports an estimated 132 kilograms per person per year for the 2022 consumer-level total. The estimate represented almost one-fifth, or 19%, of food available to consumers, so it is not the share of household purchases alone.
The global findings are estimates combining country data with modeled estimates rather than a direct weighing of every household’s discarded food. The same release describes more than 1 billion meals per day wasted by households worldwide, a press-release translation of the estimate rather than a weighed meal count.
Two further context measures matter when interpreting the global result:
- Modeled household food-waste levels across high-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries differed by only 7 kilograms per person, although lower-income coverage and confidence vary.
- Food waste contributed an estimated 8–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, while its broad economic cost was estimated at around $1 trillion annually.
These impact and cost figures cover food waste broadly, not household purchasing costs or household emissions alone.
EU Household Food Waste Data and Sector Comparisons
Eurostat’s 2022 EU food-waste release reports 59.2 million tonnes of food waste across EU countries in 2022, equal to 132 kilograms per inhabitant. The fresh-mass measure includes edible and inedible parts.
Households were the largest reported sector, but the total includes the complete food chain. The sector comparison is:
| EU sector, 2022 | Share of food waste | Kilograms per inhabitant |
|---|---|---|
| Households | 54% | 72 kg |
| Food and beverage manufacturing | 19% | 25 kg |
| Restaurants and food services | 11% | 15 kg |
| Retail and other distribution | 8% | 11 kg |
| Primary production | 8% | 10 kg |
The manufacturing, food-service, retail and primary-production rows are not household measures. Eurostat’s definition excludes food losses that were not harvested or not marketed for safety reasons, and the country table contains rounded publication values.
Selected country figures show why country comparisons need the sector label attached:
- Portugal and Italy each recorded 100 kilograms of household food waste per inhabitant in 2022 under the EU methodology.
- Slovenia recorded 33 kilograms of household food waste per inhabitant in 2022.
- Cyprus recorded 290 kilograms of total food waste per inhabitant across all reported sectors in 2022, the highest value shown in Eurostat’s country table; tourism may affect food-service waste.
- Denmark recorded 252 kilograms of total food waste per inhabitant across all reported sectors in 2022.
- Hungary recorded 91 kilograms of total food waste per inhabitant across all reported sectors in 2022.
- Croatia recorded 84 kilograms of total food waste per inhabitant across all reported sectors in 2022.
The household country figures and the broader total-sector figures should not be treated as equivalent observations.
UK Household Food Waste Volumes, Edible Shares and Costs
The United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024 estimates that the UK generated 10.7 million tonnes of food waste in 2021. Households accounted for 6.4 million tonnes, or 60% of the central estimate.
The same sector breakdown gives useful context:
| UK sector, 2021 | Estimated waste | Share of UK total |
|---|---|---|
| Households | 6.4 million tonnes | 60% |
| On-farm | 1.6 million tonnes | 15% |
| Food manufacturing | 1.4 million tonnes | 13% |
| Hospitality and food service | 1.1 million tonnes | 10% |
| Retail | 0.2 million tonnes | 2% |
The on-farm central estimate has substantial uncertainty, with a reported range of 0.9–3.5 million tonnes. All UK volume figures include edible and inedible parts unless a separate edible measure is specified.
Edible food is a particularly important household measure. Edible parts made up 71% of UK food waste in 2021 when on-farm waste was excluded, while the household-specific estimate based on data collected in 2021/22 put edible waste at 74%, or 4.7 million tonnes, of the 6.4 million-tonne household estimate.
The cited WRAP cost estimate places edible household food waste at about £17 billion per year, or approximately £250 per person and £600 per household per year. For a four-person UK household, the illustrative estimate was about £1,000 per year; these figures cover edible parts and exclude cooking, storage and transport costs.
U.S. Household Food Waste Generation and Disposal
The U.S. EPA’s Food: Material-Specific Data estimates that the residential sector generated 26.5 million U.S. short tons of wasted food in 2019. For the broader retail, food-service and residential group, EPA reports 66.2 million tons, with food and beverage manufacturing and processing adding another 40 million tons.
EPA’s 2019 Wasted Food Report estimates that residential wasted food was 66.2% landfilled, 15.1% combusted and 15.0% sent to sewer or wastewater treatment in 2019. The categories may not sum to 100% because of other routes and rounding.
For the broader retail, food-service and residential total, the estimated management pathways were:
| Management pathway, U.S. 2019 | Tons | Share of broader total |
|---|---|---|
| Landfills | 39,621,902 | 59.84% |
| Controlled combustion | 9,646,263 | 14.57% |
| Sewer or wastewater treatment | 3,975,352 | 6.00% |
| Composting | 3,304,764 | 4.99% |
| Donation | 5,135,293 | 7.76% |
| Animal feed | 1,516,771 | 2.29% |
These pathway figures are broader than households alone. EPA summarizes the same broader 66.2-million-ton total by stating that only 5% was composted, and reports that food represented 24.1% of municipal solid waste sent to U.S. landfills in a 2018 landfill-composition measure; that percentage is not a household generation rate.
Food Types, Causes and Consumer Concerns
The UK Food Standards Agency’s summary of WRAP research, The creation of food waste, separates some household waste by reported reason. Food cooked, prepared or served at home and then discarded accounted for 25% by weight, while food discarded because it did not fit personal meal preferences accounted for a further 28% by weight.
These are study-specific categories, not universal causal shares for every household or country. The same source also reports that food waste was the most common prompted food concern for 60% of respondents in a UK Food and You survey.
A separate FSA public summary reported 4.5 million tonnes of edible food thrown away by UK households each year. That rounded annual estimate is presented as an estimate for edible food only, rather than as a direct measurement of all household waste.
Longer-running U.S. supply measures use another definition. USDA ERS’s Food Loss data estimates that in 2010, 133 billion pounds, or 31% of 430 billion pounds of food available at U.S. retail and consumer levels, went uneaten.
The 2010 ERS estimate had an estimated retail value of $162 billion and represented 141 trillion kilocalories. It is a retail-and-consumer-level food-availability estimate, not a household-only plate-waste measure and not directly comparable to EPA tons.
Climate, Land, Water and Reduction Outcomes
USDA ARS research summarized in Food Waste Resonates Beyond the Trash Bin estimated that U.S. consumers discarded 150,000 tons of food per day during 2007–2014. The study-model estimate corresponded to almost 422 grams per person per day, or 30% of daily calories consumed and 25% of daily food eaten by weight.
The modeled resource footprint associated with that consumer waste included:
- 30 million acres of land used annually, equivalent to 7% of total U.S. harvested cropland.
- 780 million pounds of pesticide use and 1.8 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer use.
- 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigated water use.
These are derived resource-footprint estimates, not direct measurements of household behavior, water used in homes, or land physically occupied only by discarded household food. They show why household food waste statistics can describe upstream outcomes as well as the material entering a bin.
The figures also explain why definitions matter when evaluating reduction outcomes. A household-only edible-waste estimate, a residential disposal pathway, a retail-and-consumer food-supply estimate and a modeled resource footprint answer different questions even when each is described as food waste.