Restaurant food waste statistics look different depending on the country, year, business definition, and measurement method. UK estimates identify carbohydrates, potatoes, bread, and preparation waste as major categories, while U.S. studies quantify restaurant waste by tonnage, business type, and disposal destination.
Contents
- UK hospitality waste by food category
- Where hospitality food waste arises
- Food categories observed in business kitchens
- The scale of U.S. restaurant food waste
- Waste rates by restaurant type and unit
- Destinations and waste streams
UK hospitality waste by food category
The UK figures in this section are estimates for 2013, based on research and datasets from 2009–2013. They describe hospitality and food-service outlets as a group, rather than restaurants alone. The source is the UK government’s Food statistics pocketbook 2017: Digest of waste and resource statistics.
UK hospitality and food-service outlets generated an estimated 0.92 million tonnes of food waste per year in 2013. About 75%—equivalent to 0.68 million tonnes—was classified as avoidable. The same estimate equated hospitality food waste with about 1.3 billion meals, or one in six meals served.
The largest reported category was carbohydrate foods, which accounted for 40% of UK hospitality and food-service food waste. Potatoes and potato products represented 21%, bread and bakery products represented 12%, and pasta and rice represented 7%.
| Food category or classification | Share of UK hospitality food waste | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| Carbohydrate foods | 40% | 2013 estimate |
| Potatoes and potato products | 21% | 2013 estimate |
| Bread and bakery products | 12% | 2013 estimate |
| Pasta and rice | 7% | 2013 estimate |
| Avoidable food waste | 75% | 2013 estimate |
These categories are not separate totals that can be added without checking the source’s classification structure: potatoes, bread, pasta, and rice sit within the broader carbohydrate grouping. The figures are therefore most useful for identifying concentration in staple foods, not for constructing a new total.
Fruit and vegetable peelings made up about 25% of unavoidable UK hospitality food waste in the 2013 estimate. This is a different measure from the category shares above because it describes the composition of unavoidable waste, not all hospitality food waste.
The financial scale was also substantial. The cost of food and drink waste from the UK hospitality sector was estimated at £3.0 billion per year by 2016. In an earlier landfill measure, food waste represented 41% of the 600,000 tonnes of UK hospitality waste sent to landfill in 2009. About 400,000 tonnes of that 600,000-tonne food-waste amount was avoidable.
Where hospitality food waste arises
The UK government estimate divides hospitality and food-service waste by the point at which it arose. In 2013, 21% arose from spoilage, 45% arose during food preparation, and 34% arose from consumers’ plates. Together, those shares describe three operational points: storage, kitchen work, and service.
Food preparation was the largest of the three stages at 45%. That matters for a bistro kitchen because preparation waste can include trimming, handling, overproduction, and other activities before food reaches a customer. The supplied estimate does not quantify each of those sub-causes separately.
Plate waste represented 34% of the UK hospitality and food-service estimate. Spoilage represented the remaining reported stage share at 21%. These figures are estimates for 2013 and should not be treated as current restaurant-specific rates.
About 12% of UK hospitality food waste was recycled in 2013. The landfill context is older: UK hospitality businesses sent an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of waste to landfill in 2009, while food waste accounted for 41% of the 600,000 tonnes of hospitality waste in the cited landfill calculation. The years and denominators differ, so these numbers should be read as separate source measures.
Food categories observed in business kitchens
The UK Food Standards Agency provides a more direct observation of disposal occasions in the The creation of food waste report. Its figures come from a Kitchen Life 2 footage re-analysis completed in 2023. The sample contained 27 participating food businesses and recorded disposal during meal preparation; post-meal plate waste was not captured.
The 27 businesses produced 802 observed food-disposal occasions during meal preparation, an average of 30 observed occasions per business. Food-waste occasions were most commonly observed from 2pm to 8pm. The percentages below are shares of identifiable discarded-food observations, not shares of total mass or total cost.
Vegetables and potatoes accounted for 18% of identifiable discarded-food observations. Fresh carbohydrates, such as bread and cake, represented 5%. Red meat represented 4%, eggs 3%, fruit 2%, and leftovers 2%. Dairy and dairy alternatives represented 1%, while white meat represented 1%.
| Identifiable discarded-food category | Share of observations | Sample and period |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetables and potatoes | 18% | 27-business footage re-analysis, completed 2023 |
| Fresh carbohydrates, including bread and cake | 5% | Same sample and period |
| Red meat | 4% | Same sample and period |
| Eggs | 3% | Same sample and period |
| Fruit | 2% | Same sample and period |
| Leftovers | 2% | Same sample and period |
| Dairy and dairy alternatives | 1% | Same sample and period |
| White meat | 1% | Same sample and period |
The FSA observation profile and the older UK tonnage estimate answer different questions. The government estimate describes the composition of hospitality food waste by broader category, while the FSA re-analysis counts identifiable disposal observations in filmed kitchens. A frequently discarded item is not necessarily the heaviest item, and these percentages cannot be combined with the 40% carbohydrate estimate.
The scale of U.S. restaurant food waste
U.S. figures use different classifications from the UK data. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2019 Wasted Food Report estimated 18,337,784 tons of wasted food from U.S. restaurants in 2019. Restaurants accounted for 27.7% of wasted food generated across the report’s food retail, food service, and residential sectors in that year.
An earlier EPA Wasted Food Measurement Methodology Scoping Memo estimated 16,886,535 tons per year for restaurants and food services in 2016. That amount represented 16,886,535 of 18,038,634 tons per year estimated for U.S. hospitality, or almost 94% of the hospitality-sector excess food and food waste estimate.
The 2016 memo also described the size of the restaurant industry. In 2015, the U.S. full-service restaurant and food-service group employed 5,520,163 people, while the limited-service group employed 4,717,362. EPA estimated 260,671 full-service establishments and 297,568 limited-service establishments operated in the U.S. in 2015.
Revenue estimates provide further context but are not waste measurements. The memo projected 2017 full-service restaurant revenues at $277.3 billion and limited-service restaurant revenues at $275.4 billion.
Waste rates by restaurant type and unit
The EPA methodology memo gathers several historical factors expressed per employee, per establishment, or per revenue. These are study-specific values, not a single modern national rate.
| Measure | Reported factor | Period or study |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service waste per employee | 3,392 pounds per year | CalRecycle, 2006 |
| Limited-service waste per employee | 2,494 pounds per year | CalRecycle, 2006 |
| Unspecified restaurant/food-service waste per employee | 3,000 pounds per year | Massachusetts DEP, 2002 |
| Combined full- and limited-service waste per employee | 2,760 pounds per year | CalRecycle, 2015 |
| Waste per establishment | 43 tons per year | U.S. EPA Region 1, 2011 |
| Waste per establishment | 38.8 tons per year | Okazaki et al., 2008 |
| Full-service waste per establishment | 32 tons per year | North Carolina DENR, 2012 |
| Full-service waste per establishment | 42.7 tons per year | Battelle, 2015 |
| Waste per $1,000 of company revenue | 33 pounds | BSR, 2014 |
The employee-based factors distinguish full-service and limited-service establishments in the 2006 CalRecycle study: 3,392 pounds per employee per year for full service and 2,494 pounds for limited service. The 2015 CalRecycle factor combined both types at 2,760 pounds per employee per year. The Massachusetts DEP factor was 3,000 pounds per employee per year for unspecified restaurant and food-service establishments.
The establishment-based studies reported 43 tons per year in 2011, 38.8 tons in 2008, 32 tons for a full-service establishment in 2012, and 42.7 tons for a full-service establishment in 2015. BSR’s 2014 factor used company revenue instead, at 33 pounds per $1,000.
Using the CalRecycle 2006 employee factor, EPA’s 2016 extrapolation produced an estimated 9.36 million tons for full-service establishments and 5.88 million tons for limited-service establishments. Those are 2016 estimates based on a 2006 factor, not direct measurements from 2016 kitchens.
Destinations and waste streams
EPA’s 2019 report estimated that 59.8% of wasted food across U.S. food retail, food service, and residential sectors was landfilled. Another 14.6% went to sewer or wastewater treatment, 7.8% was donated, and 6.0% went to controlled combustion. These destination percentages cover the combined sectors, not restaurants alone.
Food retail and food service together donated approximately 5.1 million tons of excess food in the U.S. in 2019. EPA assigned 3.5% of U.S. donated excess food to food service in its 2019 donation profile. That percentage is a food-service allocation within the donation profile, not a restaurant-only donation rate.
Anaerobic digestion provides a separate view of material processed rather than total restaurant waste generated. EPA’s Supplemental Data from the 2023 Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste in the U.S. Survey Results reported 167,994 tons of fats, oils, and greases from restaurants and food services processed by U.S. anaerobic digesters in 2020. Across all listed source types, U.S. anaerobic digesters processed 16,887,369 tons of food waste in 2020.
In 2021, restaurants and food services accounted for 157,974 tons of fats, oils, and greases processed by U.S. anaerobic digesters. Across all listed source types, digesters processed 15,806,834 tons of food waste that year. The 2020 and 2021 figures describe material entering digesters, so they should not be compared directly with estimates of food waste generated by restaurants.
For a bistro, the most specific category signals in the available evidence are vegetables and potatoes in observed kitchen disposal, and carbohydrates—especially potatoes, bread, bakery products, pasta, and rice—in the broader UK hospitality estimate. The strongest operational stage signal is preparation: 45% of UK hospitality and food-service food waste arose there in the 2013 estimate, compared with 21% from spoilage and 34% from customers’ plates.