ABSTRACT
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly established a national goal with the private sector and charitable organizations to reduce food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030 (USDA, 2015), a goal consistent with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals 12.3 adopted by the United Nations (UN, 2019). In the United States, food loss and its subcomponent, food waste, occur at all stages of the food marketing system with impacts on food security, resource conservation, and climate change. Yet a single, nationally representative estimate of U.S. food loss does not exist.
