Restaurant food waste is measured differently across countries and studies, but the scale is consistently substantial. U.S. restaurants generated an estimated 18.34 million tons of wasted food in 2019, while U.S. foodservice generated 12.5 million tons of surplus food in 2024. In the EU, restaurants and food services generated below 7 million tonnes in 2024, and UK hospitality and food service generated 1.1 million tonnes in 2021. These figures cover different years, definitions, and geographic scopes, so they are useful benchmarks rather than a single directly comparable series.
Contents
- U.S. restaurant waste generation
- Where U.S. restaurant waste goes
- The 2024 U.S. foodservice picture
- Financial and environmental burden
- EU restaurant and foodservice benchmarks
- UK hospitality and foodservice benchmarks
U.S. restaurant waste generation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that full-service and limited-service restaurants generated 18,337,784 tons of wasted food in 2019. Restaurants represented 27.7% of wasted-food generation across the U.S. food retail, food service, and residential sectors that year. The broader food-service sector generated 26.7 million tons, and hospitality categories—including restaurants, hotels, and sports venues—produced more than 73% of U.S. food-service wasted food.
These are estimates for 2019, not a current annual measurement. The EPA estimated restaurant wasted-food generation at 17,090,835 tons in 2018 and 18,337,784 tons in 2019, an increase of 7.3% between the two estimates. The source describes generation estimates, so the figures should not be read as a direct measurement of kitchen scraps collected at every restaurant.
For its 2019 estimate, the EPA used different generation factors for full-service and limited-service restaurants:
| Restaurant category | Average pounds per employee per year | Average tons per facility per year |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service | 3,050.7 | 39.1 |
| Limited-service | 2,751.3 | 40.9 |
The employee-based factors and facility-based factors are modeling inputs, not claims that each individual business produced exactly those amounts. They can nevertheless help operators understand why restaurant size, staffing, and service format matter when estimating a site’s waste profile. 2019 Wasted Food Report, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Where U.S. restaurant waste goes
The EPA also estimated disposal and management pathways for wasted food from U.S. food retail, food service, residential, and food-bank sectors in 2019. Landfilling handled 59.8%, or 39.6 million tons. Restaurants supplied 33.2% of the wasted food sent to landfill. This does not mean that 33.2% of restaurant waste was landfilled; it means restaurants contributed that share of the combined sectors’ landfill-bound wasted food.
Other pathways were much smaller in the overall sector dataset. Controlled combustion handled 14.6%, or 9.6 million tons, and restaurants supplied 33.3% of that stream. Composting handled 5%, or 3.3 million tons, with restaurants supplying 39.9% of the composted wasted food. Bio-based materials and biochemical processing handled about 3.5%, or 2.3 million tons, and restaurants supplied 59.6% of that stream.
| 2019 management pathway | Share of combined-sector wasted food | Quantity | Restaurant share of pathway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landfill | 59.8% | 39.6 million tons | 33.2% |
| Controlled combustion | 14.6% | 9.6 million tons | 33.3% |
| Composting | 5% | 3.3 million tons | 39.9% |
| Bio-based materials and biochemical processing | About 3.5% | 2.3 million tons | 59.6% |
The pathway percentages describe the combined food retail, food service, residential, and food-bank sectors. They should be used to understand the national management context, not to assign a disposal outcome to every restaurant. 2019 Wasted Food Report, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The 2024 U.S. foodservice picture
A newer ReFED foodservice assessment estimated that U.S. foodservice generated 12.5 million tons of surplus food in 2024. That represented 17.7% of surplus food across the entire U.S. food system. Of the 12.5 million tons, 12.4 million tons became food waste. The distinction matters: surplus food is the wider amount generated before accounting for what is recovered, redistributed, or otherwise diverted, while food waste is the portion that became waste in this assessment.
Landfills received 78.4% of U.S. foodservice food waste in 2024, equal to 9.73 million tons. The same assessment valued all U.S. foodservice surplus food at $157 billion, equivalent to 14% of foodservice sales. Foodservice surplus food also represented the equivalent of 20.7 billion unsold or uneaten meals.
Prepared foods were the largest listed waste type, at 11.2 million tons. Dry goods accounted for 268,000 tons, while dairy and eggs accounted for 223,000 tons. These categories use the assessment’s own classification and measurement period; they are not a complete list of every food type in foodservice waste.
The 2024 estimates also put the foodservice food-loss water footprint at 5.73 trillion gallons. Surplus food was associated with 63.6 million metric tons of CO2e released into the atmosphere per year, based on 2024 data, and methane emissions attributed to U.S. foodservice surplus food were estimated at 793,000 metric tons. These are modeled environmental impacts, not direct emissions readings from restaurant premises. Food Waste by Sector: Foodservice, ReFED
Financial and environmental burden
Restaurant operators see waste first as a purchasing, labor, storage, and disposal issue, but the broader U.S. figures show the economic scale behind those operational costs. ReFED valued total U.S. surplus food at $382 billion in 2023, equal to 1.4% of U.S. GDP. Its estimated per-capita value was $1,140.
ReFED estimated that selling food that otherwise would become surplus could have generated additional revenue equal to 5% of annual U.S. food spending in 2023. This is an estimate of potential revenue, not recorded restaurant income. It should also not be treated as a guarantee that every surplus item could be sold safely or profitably.
Consumers spent $261 billion on groceries and restaurant food they did not ultimately eat in 2023. That consumer food waste represented nearly 14% of annual U.S. food-at-home spending and 7% of annual U.S. food-away-from-home spending. The food-away-from-home comparison is especially relevant to restaurant businesses, but the figure covers consumer spending nationally rather than waste generated inside restaurants alone.
For foodservice specifically, the 2024 landfill-bound food had an estimated value of $122 billion. Together, the value estimate, the 20.7 billion-meal equivalent, and the water and emissions estimates show why waste tracking can be treated as an operations metric as well as an environmental metric. The Impacts of Food Waste, ReFED
EU restaurant and foodservice benchmarks
Eurostat estimated total EU food waste at around 58 million tonnes of fresh mass in 2024. Restaurants and food services generated below 7 million tonnes, representing 12% of EU food waste. On a per-inhabitant basis, restaurants and food services accounted for 15 kilograms of food waste, compared with around 129 kilograms per inhabitant for total EU food waste.
These 2024 figures provide a broad EU benchmark, not a restaurant-only estimate for a particular country or business format. Eurostat also estimated that food waste from the EU retail, restaurant, food-service, and household supply-and-consumption sectors may equal 9% of food supplied to consumers, using 2023 supply data and a 2024 estimate.
An earlier EU reference-year dataset reported 5,275,265 tonnes of restaurant and food-service waste in 2020, equal to 9% of total EU food waste in that dataset. The 2020 and 2024 percentages should not be presented as a simple trend because the reported totals, reference years, and measurement context differ.
| EU benchmark | Measurement period | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|
| Total EU food waste | 2024 | Around 58 million tonnes |
| Restaurants and food services | 2024 | Below 7 million tonnes; 12% |
| Restaurant and food-service waste per inhabitant | 2024 | 15 kilograms |
| Restaurant and food-service waste | 2020 reference year | 5,275,265 tonnes; 9% |
Food waste and food waste prevention—estimates, Eurostat reports the 2024 estimates. The earlier reference-year result appears in the Impact Assessment Report.
UK hospitality and foodservice benchmarks
The UK hospitality and food-service sector generated 1.1 million tonnes of food waste in 2021 and accounted for 10% of total UK food waste. This is a sector-level UK benchmark that includes hospitality and food service, rather than a restaurant-only figure.
The 2013 WRAP estimate for the same broad sector was 0.92 million tonnes. It equated to one wasted meal in six out of 8 billion meals served annually. About 75% of that food waste, or 0.68 million tonnes, was classified as avoidable. Because this is a 2013 estimate, it should not be used as a current operating rate without additional, newer measurement.
The composition and origin breakdown in that estimate gives operators useful historical context. Carbohydrate foods represented 40% of UK hospitality and food-service food waste. Potatoes and potato products represented 21%, bread and bakery products 12%, and pasta and rice 7%.
The same estimate attributed 21% of food waste to spoilage, 45% to food preparation, and 34% to consumer plates. Those shares point to distinct operational questions: whether purchasing and storage are creating spoilage, whether preparation practices are generating trim and overproduction, and whether portioning or guest behavior is contributing to plate waste.
The cost of UK hospitality-sector food and drink waste was estimated at £3.0 billion in 2016, up from about £2.5 billion in 2011. Both are historical estimates, and the change should not be interpreted as a like-for-like annual restaurant cost without accounting for the source’s sector scope and methodology. United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024: Theme 2 supplies the 2021 benchmark. The historical composition and cost estimates are from the Food Statistics Pocketbook 2017.