by Amanda Smith, Associate Editor

The average food waste price tag for a family of four is $2,200 per year, noted Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland, at Charleston|Orwig's Thought Leadership event. Forty percent of the food produced on U.S. soil, or 160 billion pounds, will be wasted. Daily, we waste enough food as a nation to fill the Rose Bowl.

At the same event, Maeve Webster, with Datassential, presented revealing statistics on how the average American consumer perceives the issue of food waste:

1. Nearly 80 percent of Americans agree that food waste is a significant problem in America. Seventy-four percent agreed that they care about food waste.
   
   
2. Of those polled, 44 percent believe wasted food has harmful environmental consequences. Food waste is a larger share of what ends up in landfills than plastics and metals.
   
   
3. Less than 30 percent of Americans believe wasted food is the fault of food companies given how they package products. Additionally, 32 percent believe that the scale of the food industry is primarily responsible for food waste.
   
   
4. Only 26 percent of Americans agree that, when they throw away food, it's not a problem because it just decomposes. On the flip side, only 56 percent believe that, when they throw away food, it's their fault.
   
   
5. Fifty percent of consumers believe restaurants are the greatest source of U.S. food waste; 26 percent identify consumers; 10 percent rate either retail or manufacturers; and 6 percent believe farms are a greater contributor.