Waste not, want not? How much food does the average American waste annually?

Survey finds that Americans waste almost $1000 worth of household food every year…

In the US, wasted food is the single largest component in landfill sites. Tasked with boosting SEO rankings and increasing brand awareness, the team at Cherry Digital created a public relations campaign for Manhattan-based remodel and design firm, Klein Kitchen & Bath, surveying 3,200 Americans to discover just how much food is thrown in the trash each year… And the results were staggering!

The PR campaign found that annually, Americans waste $960.00 worth of food each month as it’s past its expiration date. Broken down by state, the survey discovered that the most wasteful US citizens are Sandlappers, who chuck out $1,304.68 worth of food every year. On the other hand, West Virginia emerged as the least-wasteful state with only $404.90 of food being thrown away annually. Perhaps unsurprisingly – due to the vast takeout and food delivery culture – New Yorkers were found to dispose of $958.97 of their food per year with men faring slightly worse than women in the study.

Why the waste? Some reasons for the overall extensive wastage included people not being familiar with the difference between sell-by and use-by dates, and not using every bit of ingredient when cooking. Nearly half of Americans won’t eat food that’s marked past its sell-by date but perhaps that’s because they’re not familiar with what this date actually signifies, which is simply the date by which the food product must be sold instore. Similarly, the use-by date caused confusion – only 26% of Americans understood that this indicates the last date for use of the product at its peak quality.

The press release we produced achieved some significant coverage across a variety of publications including features on Waste 360, Highlands News-Sun and Ruidoso News.

As part of the marketing campaign we produced an interactive infographic to help boost the clients SEO rankings. Check out the interactive map of the US below to discover how your state compares with annual food wastage:

Created by klein kitchen and bath  • View larger version