Daily cost of consumer food wasted, inedible, and consumed in the United States, 2001–2016

Conrad, Zach

doi:10.1186/s12937-020-00552-w

Cited by 47 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Previous analyses of household food expenditure at the national level have not accounted for the cost of food waste and inedible portions, as well as the important price differences between foods consumed at home and foods consumed away from the home. In the present study, we utilize nationally representative food expenditure data from a recent study by Conrad [ 22 ] that accounted for these important aspects of household food expenditure, while also using established methods to account for food price inflation to provide contemporary estimates (2016 U.S. dollars). Our findings on seafood expenditures are mostly within a few percentage points of the NMFS expenditure estimates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We estimated consumer spending by food source using previously described methods [ 22 ]. Briefly, we linked the NHANES database to the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion Food Prices Database, Consumer Price Index, and USDA National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (as described in [ 22 ]). Each food reported consumed by NHANES participants was linked with a food commodity in the USDA Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Database, which provides data on the amount of food lost and wasted at each point in the food system.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food Sources and Expenditures for Seafood in the United States

et al. 2020

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The aim of this study was to explore United States (U.S.) seafood consumption patterns, food sourcing, expenditures, and geography of consumption. We analyzed seafood intake and food sourcing using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 2007–2008 to 2015–2016 for US adults ≥19 years old (n = 26,743 total respondents; n = 4957 respondents consumed seafood in the past 24 h). Seafood expenditures were extrapolated by combining NHANES with three other public datasets. U.S. adults consumed 63% of seafood (by weight) at home. The top sources of seafood (by weight) were food retail (56%), restaurants (31%), and caught by the respondent or someone they know (5%). Sixty-five percent of consumer expenditures for seafood were at restaurants and other “away from home” sources while 35% were at retail and other “at home” sources. Slightly less than half of overall U.S. food expenditures are “away from home,” which is much lower than for seafood, suggesting that consumers have very different spending habits for seafood than for an aggregate of all foods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food Sources and Expenditures for Seafood in the United States

et al. 2020

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“…Inedible portions include pits, cores, and some seeds and peels that are discarded at the consumer level, and consumer waste includes edible portions of food that are discarded for any reason, including spoilage, blemishes, spillage, distaste for leftover food, and lack of knowledge about food selection strategies, food preparation, or storage options. The details of this procedure are described elsewhere [ 35 , 36 ] and depicted in Supplemental Figure 1 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthy diets can create environmental trade-offs, depending on how diet quality is measured

Conrad

Blackstone

Roy

2020

Nutr J

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Background There is an urgent need to assess the linkages between diet patterns and environmental sustainability in order to meet global targets for reducing premature mortality and improving sustainable management of natural resources. This study fills an important research gap by evaluating the relationship between incremental differences in diet quality and multiple environmental burdens, while also accounting for the separate contributions of retail losses, inedible portions, and consumer waste. Methods Cross sectional, nationally-representative data on food intake in the United States were acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005–2016), and were linked with nationally-representative data on food loss and waste from published literature. Survey-weighted procedures estimated daily per capita food retail loss, food waste, inedible portions, and consumed food, and were summed to represent Total Food Demand. Diet quality was measured using the Healthy Eating Index-2015 and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010. Data on food intake, loss, and waste were inputted into the US Foodprint Model to estimate the amount of agricultural land, fertilizer nutrients, pesticides, and irrigation water used to produce food. Results This study included dietary data from 50,014 individuals aged ≥2 y. Higher diet quality (HEI-2015 and AHEI-2010) was associated with greater per capita Total Food Demand, as well as greater retail loss, inedible portions, consumer waste, and consumed food (P < 0.001 for all comparisons). Consumed food accounted for 56–74% of agricultural resource use (land, fertilizer nutrients, pesticides, and irrigation water), retail loss accounted for 4–6%, inedible portions accounted for 2–15%, and consumer waste accounted for 20–23%. Higher diet quality was associated with lower use of agricultural land, but the relationship to other agricultural resources was dependent on the tool used to measure diet quality (HEI-2015 vs. AHEI-2010). Conclusions Over one-quarter of the agricultural inputs used to produce Total Food Demand were attributable to edible food that was not consumed. Importantly, this study also demonstrates that the relationship between diet quality and environmental sustainability depends on how diet quality is measured. These findings have implications for the development of sustainable dietary guidelines, which requires balancing population-level nutritional needs with the environmental impacts of food choices.

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“…Americans waste an estimated 422 g of food each day [ 1 ], including substantial amounts of healthy unprocessed meat and fish, dairy, vegetables, and fruit [ 2 ]. Wasted food contains wasted nutrients that could remedy the observed shortfalls in dietary intakes of under-consumed nutrients including fiber, calcium, and vitamin D [ 3 , 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inedible Food Waste Linked to Diet Quality and Food Spending in the Seattle Obesity Study SOS III

et al. 2021

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Americans waste about a pound of food per day. Some of this is represented by inedible food waste at the household level. Our objective was to estimate inedible food waste in relation to diet quality and participant socio-economic status (SES). Seattle Obesity Study III participants (n = 747) completed the Fred Hutch Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and socio-demographic and food expenditure surveys. Education and geo-coded tax-parcel residential property values were measures of SES. Inedible food waste was calculated from diet records. Retail prices of FFQ component foods (n = 378) were used to estimate individual-level diet costs. The NOVA classification was used to identify ultra-processed foods. Multivariable linear regressions tested associations between inedible food waste, SES, food spending, Nutrient Rich Food (NRF9.3) and Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) scores. Inedible food waste was estimated at 78.7 g/d, mostly from unprocessed vegetables (32.8 g), fruit (30.5 g) and meat, poultry, and fish (15.4 g). Greater inedible food waste was associated with higher HEI-2015 and NRF9.3 scores, higher food expenditures and lower percent energy from ultra-processed foods. In multivariable models, more inedible food waste was associated with higher food expenditures, education and residential property values. Higher consumption of unprocessed foods were associated with more inedible food waste and higher diet costs. Geo-located estimates of inedible food waste can provide a proxy index of neighborhood diet quality.

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Daily cost of consumer food wasted, inedible, and consumed in the United States, 2001–2016

Cited by 47 publications

References 23 publications

Food Sources and Expenditures for Seafood in the United States

Food Sources and Expenditures for Seafood in the United States

Healthy diets can create environmental trade-offs, depending on how diet quality is measured

Inedible Food Waste Linked to Diet Quality and Food Spending in the Seattle Obesity Study SOS III

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