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USDA, EPA, and FDA work together to reduce food waste

The USDA, EPA and FDA have signed an agreement to reduce food loss in the U.S.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the collaboration will align each agency’s efforts to educate Americans on the impacts of reducing food loss and waste.

“Administrator Wheeler has an incentive to keep food out of landfills and there are much better uses for them, Dr. Gottlieb’s challenge is to keep us safe and healthy and educate us on how long we can store that food safely and use it in that way, and the USDA has an incentive over post-harvest food waste,” he says.

Food waste in the U.S. is estimated to be between 30-40 percent of the food supply.

Perdue says the Winning on Reducing Food Waste initiative is the latest effort by the USDA and EPA to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030. In 2015 the USDA and EPA announced the United States’ first-ever food loss and waste reduction goal, the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions initiative.