Dive Brief:

• Nearly a third of the U.S. food supply ends up wasted, nonprofit ReFed revealed in a new report. The roughly 73.9 million tons of surplus food generated in 2023 amounts to 442 pounds of surplus food per capita.
• Total wasted food has risen to levels last seen in 2016 after a pandemic-related drop. ReFed said a "significant acceleration in action" is needed to meet the U.S. goal to halve food waste by 2030. 
• Currently, 85% of surplus food goes to waste destinations. That includes 24.2 million tons to landfills and 3.03 million tons to incineration, according to the nonprofit’s Insights Engine.

Dive Insight:

The value of surplus food generated in the U.S. totaled $382 billion in 2023, per the nonprofit. The climate impact of that food is significant, especially if it’s discarded — the U.S. EPA has identified food waste as a major contributor to methane generated in landfills. 

ReFed argues that addressing that wasted food requires a "systemwide" approach. That means increased efforts from food producers and retailers to prevent waste and collaboration with logistics companies and waste haulers to keep organic waste in a closed-loop system. 

Legislation will likely be required to encourage best practices. In the Congressional session that ended last year, 16 bills were introduced that could have impacted food waste, including the Food Date Labeling Act and Compost Act. None of those proposals passed, but ReFed expects some could return as Congress gears up for a belated farm bill, which funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The nonprofit is also tracking policies designed to tackle food waste at the state level, and notes bills encouraging alternatives to disposal are on the rise. Last year, ReFed tracked 100 state-level bills that addressed food waste in some form. Of those, 18 passed, seven failed and the rest remain pending. 

Oregon lawmakers, for instance, are currently debating a bill that would require large food waste generators to divert that material to composting. The bill, HB 3018, would also standardize date labels.

A dozen states and Washington, D.C., ban or restrict food from entering landfills, ReFed reported. Twelve states also have codified tax incentives for food donation.

Moving forward, Refed said, policies may need to focus upstream. A study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that current state-level policies nationwide can only lead to a 5% reduction in waste generation and overemphasize organics recycling rather than was prevention, food rescue or repurposing wasted food for animal feed.

While long-term funding trends show an increased flow of capital to food waste solutions, the field has seen a decline in recent years. Venture capital funding for such efforts appears to have peaked in 2021, per data from ReFed. And while the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act both pumped significant federal dollars into the space, those funding sources are now threatened by the Trump administration.

Federal funding for food waste solutions topped $300 million in 2024, and private funding was roughly $640 million, ReFed reported.

The nonprofit argues large public, private and philanthropic funders that are willing to finance climate mitigation and adaptation projects should focus more of their attention on food waste, noting just 4% of global climate funding to date has gone toward food waste.

"Climate finance entering the food loss and waste sector has fallen critically short of the need," ReFed's team reported. "This current mismatch in capital allocation toward the areas with the greatest impact potential represents a huge opportunity for climate funders to lead in driving real and meaningful change."

Looking ahead, the nonprofit is tracking opportunities to tackle food waste. It notes a rise in the use of artificial intelligence to monitor food for freshness and improve supply chains. It expects policy drivers to continue to improve the landscape as well, with state and federal bills still on the table.