Progress In Reducing Food Waste: A Data Report from the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment and the U.S. Food Waste Pact
March 31, 2025
Data collection is a central pillar of the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment (PCFWC) and the U.S. Food Waste Pact (Pact) in their efforts to reduce food waste through data-driven strategies. Since 2019, PCFWC retailers have been measuring and reporting food waste in their operations. This year, in addition to a fifth year of regional data from PCFWC retail signatories, the Pact is building on this legacy of best-in-class data reporting by publishing national retail and foodservice data for the first time. This report is an in-depth dive into these three datasets.
Since the first year of data collection in 2019, unsold food rates have decreased by 30% for reporting PCFWC retailers.
PCFWC retailers had an unsold food rate of 3.12% in 2023.
Pact retailers had an unsold food rate of 4.1% in 2023.
Nearly 13k tons of food went unsold in the foodservice (business & industry) segment in 2023.
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