Wasting Trust: Why Food Waste Is Becoming a Corporate Risk and What Companies Can Do About It
A System Designed to Waste
The United States discards more than 80 billion pounds of food every year, nearly 40 percent of the national food supply. This is not a failure of the average American consumer. Over half of that waste originates from businesses, including farms, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, whose systems are built around overproduction, aesthetics, and short-term efficiency at the cost of long-term impact.
In the food sector, excess is often a feature, not a flaw. Many companies operate under procurement contracts, slotting agreements, or shelf-space guarantees that reward volume over efficiency. For instance, grocery stores routinely overstock to create an illusion of abundance, even knowing that some goods will spoil unsold. Restaurants and foodservice providers design buffets and menus around large portions and variety, further embedding waste into daily operations. At restaurants, 70 percent of the food that gets tossed is “plate waste” (food that’s served but not eaten).
This systemic inefficiency creates challenges not only in resource use but also in measurement. Much of the food industry’s waste footprint remains unreported or underreported.
The State of Progress
Corporate reporting around food waste is often incomplete and inconsistent. Many companies publicize the number of meals donated but omit how much food was wasted overall. This lack of full disclosure conceals the scale of the problem.
A 2019 scorecard found that seven of the 10 largest U.S. grocery chains had no zero-waste goals and did not report waste figures. Since then, a few have made progress, but transparency remains limited. Without consistent metrics and annual data, consumers have no way of verifying that companies are improving their policies.
A handful of companies have introduced food waste reduction initiatives which can provide insight into where there is momentum and where more work is needed. The following examples offer useful insights:
Asda: The UK-based supermarket chain Asda offers a strong example of both prevention and transparency. It has transitioned all its fresh beef and lamb mince products to vacuum-sealed packaging. This change is expected to double the shelf life of these products. In 2023, the company reported that 0.6 percent of the food it purchased was unsold, with 12 percent of that unsold food being donated or redistributed. Asda follows the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (FLW Standard) to measure its food waste from stores, depots, and home offices.
Smithfield Foods: As the nation's largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods achieved a 30 percent reduction in rendering loss at one of its plants by reassessing and optimizing its waste streams. This operational shift retained approximately 3.8 million protein servings (or 943,400 pounds of edible product) in the food supply chain annually, with an estimated market value of $5.8 million. However, specific data on food waste volumes and detailed reporting on prevention strategies are limited in publicly available resources.
Walmart: In collaboration with Denali, Walmart has introduced a new technology across 1,400 Walmart and Sam's Club stores aimed at significantly reducing food waste. This system enhances the recycling of unsellable food, including meat, dairy, and eggs, by processing these items into organic compost, animal-feed ingredients, or biofuels. This initiative aligns with Walmart's goal to halve food waste by 2030. It reports a 12 percent waste reduction, but its public reporting focuses on processing unsold food rather than quantifying overall waste.
MGM Resorts International: Since 2007, MGM Resorts has been diverting food scraps from its Las Vegas Strip properties to RC Farms, a swine farm that utilizes the waste as animal feed. This practice not only reduces landfill waste but also supports sustainable livestock feeding practices. However, the company does not share comprehensive waste totals or time-bound targets.
Inconsistent or incomplete reporting limits accountability and understanding from stakeholders and could undermine business performance. Given the rising consumer demand for meaningful action on food waste, it’s important to have clear and transparent reporting. According to a global survey by Capgemini, 91 percent of consumers prefer to buy from companies that actively work to reduce food waste, and 58 percent have increased their spending with such brands in the past year.
Meanwhile, 61 percent of consumers believe brands and retailers should take more responsibility for helping reduce household waste. Over half of social media conversations on food waste carry negative sentiment, and anger is the most common emotional tone.
Donation is Not Prevention
Donation programs are better than sending edible food to landfills, but they are not a substitute for waste prevention. The EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy ranks prevention, i.e. stopping waste before it occurs, as the most effective strategy, far above donation, composting, or landfill diversion.
Real prevention requires redesigning sourcing, pricing, and inventory systems. That includes:
Dynamic pricing for short-dated goods
Selling imperfect produce
Improved demand forecasting
Portion and packaging adjustments
Yet many companies remain focused on post-hoc solutions like donation and diversion, rather than confronting the root causes of waste in their business models.
The Hidden Costs of Animal Product Waste
Meat, dairy, and eggs represent just over a quarter of food waste by weight, but account for a disproportionate share of emissions, land use, and water consumption.
According to the EPA’s 2021 report From Farm to Kitchen, food waste accounts for approximately 2 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, nearly half the footprint of the entire domestic aviation sector. The report found that reducing waste from animal products offers the greatest potential environmental return per unit of food saved.
New research published in Sustainable Production and Consumption adds further context. In 2019, roughly 18 billion of the 75 billion land animals raised for food worldwide were never eaten. The animals were wasted at various stages, including on farms, during transport, or in processing and retail. In the United States, an estimated 7.1 land animals are wasted per person each year — nearly three times the global average.
In North America, about one-quarter of meat waste occurs on farms, with 1.5 million animals dying prematurely every day due to disease, injury, or health complications associated with selective breeding. Additional losses occur during transport and slaughter due to overcrowding, extreme weather exposure, and weak regulatory enforcement.
Retail and consumer-level waste also contribute substantially. USDA data indicates that 26 percent of meat, poultry, and fish is wasted at these stages. Grocery stores account for about 13 percent of meat waste, often due to overstocking and display practices that shorten product shelf life. Even modest reductions could shift market dynamics. Smithfield Foods, the country’s largest pork producer, cut rendering loss by 30 percent at one plant after reassessing its waste streams.
A Significant Economic Burden
In addition to environmental impacts, food waste represents a significant economic burden. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the global cost of food waste is estimated at approximately $2.6 trillion annually, including $1 trillion in direct economic losses, $700 billion in environmental costs, and $900 billion in social costs (reflecting lost nutrition, wasted labor, preventable public health burdens, and missed opportunities to address hunger and inequality).
Reducing waste, especially in animal-based foods, could significantly lower emissions, ease pressure on natural resources, improve food security, and recover billions in lost economic and social value.
The Business Case for Waste Reduction
If global food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind only China and the United States. But it remains absent from most corporate sustainability strategies and reports.
That’s a critical missed opportunity. Reducing food waste isn’t just good for the planet; it’s good for business. Food waste accounts for an average of 5.6 percent of total sales in the food sector, representing both financial and environmental losses. One study found that companies investing in food waste reduction saw a 14-to-1 return on investment.
Benefits extend beyond ROI for businesses:
Cost savings on procurement and disposal: Waste reduction lowers costs associated with buying, storing, transporting, and disposing of excess product.
Operational efficiency and demand alignment: Businesses that optimize portion sizes, shelf-life forecasting, and markdown strategies tend to have better inventory turns and fewer stockouts.
Brand trust and consumer loyalty: Transparency and real progress can drive both loyalty and differentiation, especially among younger, sustainability-conscious consumers.
Investor pressure and ESG metrics: Institutional investors increasingly view food waste as a material issue tied to environment and risk exposure. Companies that fail to address it may find themselves facing heightened scrutiny.
Reducing food waste is one of the clearest opportunities to align social responsibility with financial performance, but most companies are leaving it on the table.
The Policy Landscape is Changing
Several states, including California and New York, now require large food businesses to donate edible surplus and divert the rest from landfills. The federal Food Donation Improvement Act, passed in 2023, expanded protections for direct donations and is expected to improve corporate participation. More legislation is being considered to fund food waste prevention and standardize expiration date labels.
Despite these changes, most companies are not adapting fast enough. Capgemini reports that while 77 percent of food businesses claim to support the UN 2030 food waste goal, only 15 percent are on track to meet it.
What CRFB Recommends
To move from promises to measurable progress, CRFB urges food companies to:
Publicly disclose total food waste annually, with clear breakdowns of where waste goes
Set time-bound reduction targets in alignment with national and global goals
Focus on source prevention over donation or composting
Support clear federal legislation, including standardized food date labeling and tax incentives for prevention investments
Reducing food waste is a clear win for business, the environment, and public trust. As public awareness grows and regulatory pressure increases, the stakes are only getting higher.
Companies that take meaningful action now will set the standard for leadership. Those who delay will face mounting scrutiny and risk being left behind.