CHICAGO—A new report from the U.S. Food Waste Pact (Pact), a collaborative initiative of 30 food businesses across the country led by nonprofits ReFED and World Wildlife Fund, shows reductions in the amount of food being wasted nationwide by grocery retail and foodservice companies in 2024 compared to 2023. The results are good news for the food system, as it tries to address its 60-million-ton food waste problem.
This is the second year that Pact signatories have reported these data, with 2023 results serving as the inaugural benchmark for food waste in these sectors. Unsold food rates, the metric that most accurately reflects waste reduction in the retail sector, decreased by 1.1 percent from 2023 to 2024, despite an increase in tons wasted. This means that while market fluctuations and business performance across the retail sector resulted in more food passing through grocery stores, food waste still decreased based on the share of retail inventory that went unsold. The food efficiency rate, the metric that most accurately reflects waste reduction in the foodservice sector, decreased by 5.7 percent from 2023 to 2024, which was accompanied by a 4,000-ton reduction in waste and a $15.9 million decrease in the wholesale cost of surplus food.
“Being able to measure these kinds of trends is a core reason for why the U.S. Food Waste Pact was launched over two years ago. Measuring food waste is critical to making progress to reduce it. This kind of data allows signatories and food businesses across the country to take informed and targeted action against food waste,” says Jackie Suggitt, Vice President of Business Initiatives & Community Engagement at ReFED.
Pilots Result in Significant Reductions
In addition to these downward trends in retail and foodservice, the report shares that Pact pilot projects to test and scale solutions to food waste resulted in significant reductions. To date, these pilots have demonstrated food waste reduction averaging more than 50 percent, including:
- Across four pilots, frontline workers have generated 750+ food waste reduction ideas and have implemented over ten ideas, resulting in an average food waste reduction of 66 percent.
- One whole chain pilot from 2025 that tested a solution to utilize more strawberries in the foodservice sector reduced on-farm strawberry waste by 51 percent.
- The Pact’s first low-waste events pilot implementing measurement practices and testing several solutions to back-of-house waste reduced 55 percent of food waste in key food categories across participating sites.
“Our pilots show impressive proof of concept that, if brought to scale, could have staggering impacts on food waste. It points to the need for more collaboration across the supply chain to leverage simple solutions with high returns,” says Pete Pearson, Vice president of Food Loss and Waste at World Wildlife Fund.
“Being a part of the U.S. Food Waste Pact has been incredibly valuable for ALDI. As a founding signatory, collaborating openly with our peers has accelerated our progress and provided insights that we excitedly share with fellow signatories. As the Pact grows, so does its impact on reducing food waste nationwide. Together, we are making meaningful strides in food waste diversion and reduction, and we take pride in being part of the retail cohort that established the national benchmark for food waste in our industry,” says Emily Wiora, Sustainability Director at ALDI US.
Hilton is Pact’s First Hospitality Signatory
A total of 14 food businesses and organizations joined the Pact in 2025, nearly doubling the initiative’s signatory base. Organically Grown Company and Midwest Foods established a food distribution cohort for the Pact, and CAVA, Starbucks, and Wawa tripled the quick-service restaurant cohort. Hilton was the Pact’s first hospitality signatory, and at the end of the year, the American Hotel & Lodging Association joined as a coalition signatory, a partner that can reach many organizations. Trade associations Western Growers Association and the International Fresh Produce Association helped the Pact establish a presence in the producer sector, and FMI—The Food Industry Association’s joining marked a critical milestone for the Pact because the association touches every corner of the food system. These signatories and more have expanded the Pact’s work across the entire supply chain, allowing for more collaboration to accelerate impact.
“This was a landmark year for the U.S. Food Waste Pact. Our signatories are deeply invested in learning from each other, and the impact of that shared knowledge shows. Whether on a micro scale through pilots or on a macro scale through their own business initiatives, they are taking data-informed action to reduce food waste, and their collaboration is accelerating progress on that shared goal. We’re excited to deepen our engagement with signatories this year as we focus on expanding our resources and scaling solution adoption,” says Dana Gunders, President of ReFED.
The signatories of the U.S. Food Waste Pact are retailers Albertsons Companies, Ahold Delhaize USA, ALDI US, Amazon Fresh, Kroger, New Seasons Market, Raley’s, Sprouts Farmers Market, Walmart Inc., and Whole Foods Market; manufacturers Bob’s Red Mill, Del Monte Fresh Produce Company, and Lamb Weston, Inc.; coalition signatories Health Care Without Harm and R&DE Stanford Food Institute; trade associations the American Hotel & Lodging Association, FMI—The Food Industry Association, the International Fresh Produce Association, and Western Growers Association; foodservice signatories Aramark, Compass Group USA, ISS Guckenheimer, and Sodexo USA; quick-service restaurants CAVA, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and Wawa; hospitality signatory Hilton; and distributors Organically Grown Company and Midwest Foods.
For the complete picture, the reports are available here:
