Today, I'd like to announce that USDA has just completed the first comprehensive study of food loss in America in 20 years. I'd like to recognize the work of USDA's Economic Research Service, and in particular, the leadership of Linda Scott Kantor, in putting this study together. This figure, I might add is extraordinarily conservative. It's a lot of waste. 60 billion pounds of fresh fruits vegetables make it to market every year.
Consumers waste the equivalent of a third of a glass of milk per American per day.
Day-old bread and seasonal items, such as Halloween cookies, also tend to outlive their saleability long before their edibility. In restaurants, the trend toward upsizing entrees is leaving more leftovers. It' s not easy. Transportation, storage and packaging are not cheap. Getting consistent, reliable volunteers, and training them in safe-food preparation can also be a challenge.