U.S. wastes $400 billion in food each year

Millions of Americans live They are afraid they will starve Because of possible delays in SNAP food assistance benefit payments even after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to make the payments in November. This is true in a country where close to $400 billion of food is at risk of going to waste every year.

re-feeding, A non-profit organization based in the USA Focusing on food waste, the company recently released its 2025 report showing $382 billion in excess food produced by 2023; latest year statistics were available.

“Worldwide, 40 percent of all food ends up in the trash,” said Chris MacAulay, head of the surplus food market for Too Good to Go’s North American operation, which spans 70 cities. “Picture what that means; it’s like standing in front of the refrigerator and throwing half of it out. That’s an incredible amount of waste,” MacAulay said.

Too Good to Go does not divert excess food that might end up in food banks, but it does provide an outlet for food that might often be thrown away. It matches grocery stores and restaurants with food surpluses with customers looking for affordable food. For example, a local pizza parlor may have extra pies available at the end of the night. Instead of throwing them in the trash, they can at least make up for something by offering Too Good to Go. Consumers are matched with a “surprise bag” containing food that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Too Good to Go estimates that eight meals are saved every second in the market.

“We know that many Americans are feeling more pressure on their grocery budgets, especially in light of potential upcoming cuts to SNAP benefits,” MacAulay said. he said. “You don’t know what you’re going to get, but you’re going to get great food at 50 to 60 percent off,” he added.

The current SNAP crisis comes amid broader cuts to the food aid program, which are among the Trump administration’s tax cuts that will reduce payments across the US

Donation, composting, animal feed, and surplus food markets are the primary options for food waste.

“There’s no single solution, it’s a combination of solutions. We think of it as a food waste supply chain,” MacAulay said, adding that grocers in particular see the marketplace as a good choice for their own surpluses.

His organization is not alone in seeing the need for more solutions to the problem. Everyone from big investors to small stores are increasingly realizing that there are dollars to be saved and people to be fed from the food waste business.

“The amount of transaction activity and the amount of interest in the sector is quite impressive,” said Effram Kaplan, senior managing director at Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, who heads investment banking in environmental services, environmental infrastructure and energy transition.

Kaplan says waste management businesses are nothing new, but the consistency and predictability of returns is attracting increasing interest from investors. “I have been in this business for 25 years and I believe it has been undervalued for a while,” he said.

Forward-thinking, deep-pocketed infrastructure investors seeking steady returns are discovering that waste pays dividends in the U.S. “While this type of capital has been prevalent in Europe for some time, it’s just getting started here,” Kaplan said.

Barriers to entry are falling, but getting a job still requires significant investment, mostly in equipment.

“I think it’s easier than ever because technology lowers the barrier to entry when you come up with a good idea,” MacAulay said.

Food waste from home to commercial kitchen

Some solutions go directly to the consumer. Mill, a startup founded by one of the creators of the Nest smart thermostat, now has $100 million in funding for a smart kitchen box that dries, shrinks and deodorizes food, eliminating food waste.

Other approaches also come into play at the commercial end of waste. Metafoodx, startup raising $9.4 million With Series A funding in May 2024, it created a 3D AI scanner that tracks food in commercial kitchens—what is used, what is wasted, and where improvements can be made.

Start-ups have a unique ability to use technology to compete with larger players, says Buddy Bockweg, CEO of Vsimple, which works with industrial and environmental services companies (including waste management providers) to digitize and streamline operations from field shipping to invoicing.

“AI can streamline everything on the shipping side,” Bockweg said. “Those who invest in technology to advance their operations are the winners and make more money.”

Tyler Frank, president and founder of Portland, Maine-based Garbage to Garden, started small and grew big. He started his business in 2012 with $300 and a truck after realizing there was no easy way to compost his waste while living in his apartment. Garbage to Garden provides compost bins and a subscription-based route pickup. The waste is composted and shipped to area farms, or subscribers can have the soil delivered back to them.

“I think the barrier to entry for me doing this was low, but it was a very long, difficult hill to climb. You have to get economies of scale,” Frank said. What motivated him in part was the knowledge that waste would become a business, regardless of other economic factors. “This is a recession-proof business and an idea whose time has come,” Frank said.

What started as a one-pack subscription at a time is increasingly turning into a municipal contract. Garbage to Garden currently serves 50,000 subscribers and has signed acquisition agreements in cities such as Boston and Medford, Massachusetts.

Low-income households waste less

While Frank’s business model doesn’t solve the hunger problem (there may actually be less composted waste as people try to squeeze everything possible out of their food during SNAP delays), he says the overall trend and flow of food waste is increasing.

Ben Scharadin, an economics professor at Colby College, says the government has played a big role in the innovation and growth occurring in the industry due to federal waste reduction mandates and the desire of businesses to be more efficient.

But a cruel irony of the current situation is that SNAP beneficiaries are less likely to waste food than others.

“Low-income households generally have lower rates of food waste than higher-income households. If you have a tighter budget constraint, households don’t have as much leeway,” Scharadin said. “Low-income and SNAP households are better at planning their food purchases because they have to be,” he said.

Younger and wealthier households tend to be wasteful, and subscription compost services will be considered a premium, says Scharadin. He said the circular economy should be prepared for some impact from SNAP cuts, and business models like Too Good to Go should benefit from that.

“As things get tighter on the budget line for consumers, there will be a quicker pivot to surprise bags and secondary markets that are seemingly a little lower quality,” Scharadin said.

Still, although more companies are finding new ways to tackle the waste problem, “the first goal in food waste should be to reduce it,” Scharadin said.