The objective was to know the practices of full use, waste and the destination given to food leftovers by the resident population of Diamantina/MG. The participants were residents of 4 neighbourhoods attended by family health units, with a number of 50 people per neighbourhood being defined, a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of two blocks was applied, the first with socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and the second, relative to food preparation, conservation and consumption practices. The application was only carried out after the participant had received and signed the Free and Informed Consent Form (ICF) and was over 18 years old. The loss of food at home before preparation/consumption was observed in 41.4% of participants. Regarding the destination of leftover food, 71.2% of the participants said they had to reuse the leftovers. The full use of food was observed in 47.2% of the participants. Thus, it is concluded that the use of full use of food is still little practiced by the population, since the use of leftovers is a more common practice among respondents despite the fact that waste is still great among the population.