The Foods Americans Waste the Most May Surprise You

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Americans waste a remarkable amount of food, but the foods experiencing the biggest losses aren’t necessarily the ones you might expect.

A new analysis published September 21, 2026, examined historical U.S. food-loss data from the Food and Agriculture Organization covering 2000 through 2022. Rather than looking only at what households throw away, the analysis considered losses across different stages of the food supply chain, including harvesting and retail.

The results reveal some striking differences between food categories.

Fruit Juice Has One of the Biggest Loss Rates

Fruit juice stands out in the analysis.

Across the juice commodities included in the dataset, the average loss rate was 32.66%, substantially higher than the overall average of 10.20% across all commodities studied. The analysis found that half of the juice commodities had losses between 25% and 42%, with a median of roughly 34%.

Grapefruit juice recorded the highest individual loss within the juice category, followed closely by orange juice.

That doesn’t mean that a third of every bottle of juice purchased by American households is thrown away. The figure represents the analysis’s estimate across the supply processes represented in the underlying data.

That distinction matters.

Vegetables Are Another Major Source of Loss

Vegetables had the second-highest average loss rate among the major food groups examined, at 11.90%.

But the category isn’t uniform.

Some vegetables showed much higher losses than others, producing substantial variation within the group. The analysis identified commodities including green garlic, tomatoes, okra, and spinach among those with elevated loss rates.

USDA research has also found significant losses among fresh vegetables at the retail level. In its analysis of 2016 supermarket data, potatoes, tomatoes, and romaine and leaf lettuce accounted for large shares of vegetable loss because they were sold in substantial volumes, even though some other vegetables had higher percentage loss rates.

So, for vegetables, both how much is sold and how quickly a product is lost matter.

Fruits Tell a Different Story

Fruits had an average loss rate of about 6.99% in the newer analysis.

That was considerably lower than vegetables and far below fruit juices. The data showed a more consistent distribution of losses among fruits, with fewer extreme values driving the overall result.

That doesn’t mean fruit waste is insignificant.

USDA’s retail-loss estimates found that supermarket losses for 24 fresh-fruit categories totaled approximately 6.7 billion pounds in 2016, or about 4.7 billion pounds after excluding the weight of pits and peels. Watermelon and apples had particularly high loss volumes because of the large quantities available for sale.

Nuts and Animal Products Had Lower Loss Rates

At the other end of the analysis were nuts and animal products.

Nuts had an average loss rate of 2.17%, while animal products averaged 2.06%. The analysis cautions that these categories contained only three commodities each, so the results are based on a smaller sample.

Among the individual commodities examined, sheep meat had a loss rate close to zero, while walnuts were also among the lowest.

Again, these figures describe the particular historical dataset and supply-chain processes analyzed. They shouldn’t be interpreted as a measurement of what individual American households waste.

Why the Numbers Can Be Confusing

Food waste and food loss are often used interchangeably, but they don’t always measure the same thing.

Food can be lost before it reaches a store, during processing or distribution, at retail, or after consumers purchase it.

EPA’s current food-waste data, for example, tracks wasted food across residential households, food retail, food service, and food and beverage manufacturing and processing.

That means there isn’t necessarily one single answer to the question, “What food do Americans waste the most?”

The answer changes depending on whether you’re measuring pounds, percentage of available food, household waste, retail losses, or losses across the entire supply chain.

The Household Waste Problem Is Still Significant

Even though the newest analysis isn’t a household-only study, the broader picture is clear.

The EPA estimates that more than one-third of food in the United States goes uneaten. Its 2025 analysis estimated the cost of food waste at about $728 per U.S. consumer each year, or approximately $2,913 annually for a household of four.

That makes food waste more than an environmental issue. It also means households are paying for food that ultimately isn’t consumed.

And the problem isn’t limited to what’s left on a dinner plate.

Food can be forgotten in the refrigerator, purchased in quantities that aren’t used, damaged during storage, or discarded because it no longer looks appealing.

What This Means at Home

The most useful takeaway isn’t necessarily that Americans should stop buying particular foods.

Instead, the data suggests that how people purchase, store, and use food matters.

For produce, buying quantities you can realistically use before they spoil can reduce unnecessary waste. Checking the refrigerator before grocery shopping can prevent duplicate purchases. Planning a few meals around ingredients already at home can also help you use food before it is forgotten.

When a food item is nearing the end of its usable life, finding a way to incorporate it into another meal can be better than throwing it away.

EPA’s Wasted Food Scale ranks preventing food from becoming waste at the top of its preferred management options, because it avoids wasting all the resources that went into producing, transporting, and preparing the food in the first place.

The Bigger Picture

The newest U.S. analysis offers an interesting reminder: the food-waste problem isn’t concentrated in one simple category.

Fruit juices showed the highest average loss rate in the study, followed by vegetables. Fruits had a considerably lower average, while nuts and animal products recorded the lowest averages among the groups analyzed.

But the numbers tell only part of the story.

Food loss happens throughout the system, from farms and processors to supermarkets and homes. Understanding where the biggest losses occur can help businesses, policymakers, and households find different solutions.

For people at home, the simplest place to start may be the refrigerator.

Before the next grocery trip, take a look at what’s already there. The food Americans waste most isn’t always the food they intended to throw away.