Food Waste

While “food waste” can be used as an overarching term, for the purposes of this dashboard, we will use the terms below to differentiate what happens at different stages of the food system:

  • Food loss happens during the production, processing, and distribution of food.

  • Food waste happens when food that is fit for consumer consumption is thrown away, whether it is before or after it spoils in its current site (e.g. retail location, consumer’s home, etc.).

This dashboard focuses exclusively on food waste. Food waste involves three different sectors: retail, hospitality, and home. Retail includes any location that sells goods for consumer consumption (e.g., grocery stores), while hospitality includes accommodations and entertainment of guests (e.g. restaurants, hotels, etc.).

Questions to Consider

It can be difficult to capture data related to food waste because of the nature of where and how it happens. Food waste happens at retail stores, restaurants, schools, and neighbors’ homes, making it difficult to accurately measure. While there is some data related to food waste, particularly around the amount of food rescued, there is a huge need to collect data on how much food is actually wasted. Below are some questions to consider related to food waste data:

  • How much food is wasted vs. rescued?

  • What types of food are most often wasted at the retail and consumer levels?

    • How does this vary by county? Between rural and urban communities?

  • How much food waste is avoidable loss compared to unavoidable loss?

  • How much post-consumer waste is being rescued instead of composted in Central Texas?

    • How does this vary by county? Between rural and urban communities?

  • What are the most impactful interventions to reduce food waste in Central Texas?

Pounds of Food Recovered from Businesses

Central Texas Food Bank collects data on the number of food pounds rescued via donations from commercial organizations. This includes food donations that are not part of food drives. This dashboard shows the amount of food rescued by product type across six counties in the Central Texas Food Bank service area, including McLennan County and the Austin/Round Rock MSA. Each year, the food bank rescues 12-15 million pounds across these counties, preventing that food from going to landfills.

Highlights: Across all counties, produce is the most rescued product type.

Filter the data by toggling between years, counties, product types, and food sourcing types using the filters below the chart.

Note: “Other” includes items such as condiments, baby formula, and juice. Data from 2023 will not be complete until the end of the calendar year.

Data Source: Central Texas Food Bank inventory data (January 2019-September 2023)

Refreshed: Quarterly. Dashboard last refreshed October 2023.

Filter the data by toggling between years, counties, and food sourcing types using the filters below the chart.

This dashboard shows the amount of food rescued by food sourcing type across six counties in the Central Texas Food Bank service area, including McLennan County and the Austin/Round Rock MSA. Sourcing types are defined as follows:

  • Retail: Sells food and groceries directly to consumers (e.g., supermarkets)

  • Manufacturer: Combines, purifies, processes, or packages food for sale through a wholesale outlet

  • Distributor: Provides food in large quantities to retailers, restaurants, hotels, and others providing food to consumers

  • Agriculture: Grows crops or raises animals to provide food

  • Hospitality: Serves ready-to-eat food directly to consumers (e.g., restaurants)

Highlights: Three-quarters of the food rescued across the service area comes from retail, indicating that there could be potential to rescue more food from the remaining sources.

Data Source: Central Texas Food Bank inventory data (January 2019-September 2023)

Refreshed: Quarterly. Dashboard last updated October 2023.

The graph below shows how many food pounds were rescued by month and year across six counties in the Central Texas Food Bank service area, including McLennan County and the Austin/Round Rock MSA.

To supplement Central Texas Food Bank data, Keep Austin Fed contributed data about food rescued in Travis County. This graph is not meant to read as a comprehensive representation of food rescue data. Rather, it is a snapshot of what two prominent food rescue organizations (Central Texas Food Bank and Keep Austin Fed) have been able to rescue.

Highlights: Overall, the highest volume of food was rescued in 2020. Over the past few years, the percentage of food rescued from agriculture has decreased, while the other product types have remained relatively steady.

Filter the data by toggling between years, counties, product types, and food sourcing types using the filters below the chart.

Data Source: Central Texas Food Bank inventory data (January 2019-September 2023) and Keep Austin Fed (2019-2022)

Refreshed: Quarterly. Dashboard last updated October 2023.

Food Waste Reports and Articles

In fall 2023, Central Texas Food Bank worked with University of Texas students in Nutrition 355 on a full literature review related to food waste. Read the literature review here.