Report: About 40 Percent Of U.S. Food Supply Is Wasted, But Most Americans Believe They Don't Waste Much
BALTIMORE, MD (CBS) – How much food do you throw out?
According to the Department of Agriculture, up to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply is wasted every year.
In 2010, more than $16 billion worth of food was put straight into landfills.
A Johns Hopkins survey claims most food is wasted because of fears about food poisoning and freshness.
The research, from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, reveals that about three-quarters of Americans believe they're wasting less food than the national average.
"Americans perceive themselves as wasting very little food, but in reality, we are wasting substantial quantities," says study leader Roni Neff, PhD, director of the Food System Sustainability & Public Health Program at CLF and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences, on the school's website. "It happens throughout the food chain, including both a lot of waste by consumers, and a lot on our behalf, when businesses think we won't buy imperfect food. The root causes are complex."
The study surveyed just over 1,000 Americans and is published in the June 10 issue of PLOS One.