Trends & Strategies
Food Waste in Healthcare
September 22, 2026
This first-of-its-kind report between the U.S. Food Waste Pact (the Pact) and Health Care Without Harm represents a critical step for the healthcare segment of foodservice both measuring and publicly reporting on food waste. Using data from the 2025 Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards, this report provides insights into how the healthcare segment currently manages its surplus food, with the goal of catalyzing action within hospital foodservice operations.
Key facts & figures:
35.1% of healthcare food waste goes to the Unknown destination category, followed by 28.7% going to Composting and 16.3% going to Donations.
Surplus food from the healthcare sector is equivalent to 8.51 million meals—enough to feed over 7,500 people for one year.
40.3% of healthcare facilities have performed a food waste audit, with the majority who did identifying specific types, quantities, destinations, and causes of food in their waste streams.
Collaborate Across the Food System
The U.S. Food Waste Pact brings stakeholders from across the supply chain together to prevent and reduce food waste. From producers, to manufacturers, to distributors, to foodservice operators, to grocery retailers, signatories of the Pact report food waste data, discuss best practices, and test and scale food waste solutions.