August 14, 2024 –A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has revealed 22.7 percent of total seafood supply in the U.S. is lost or wasted – significantly lower than previous Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that stated 50 percent of the supply went to waste.
Published in the journal Nature the study, titled “Aquatic food loss and waste rate in the United States is half of earlier estimates,” aimed to provide updates to 2011 FAO estimates on aquatic food loss and waste (FLW) by addressing several key assumptions that led to potentially inflated numbers.