Approximately 23 million tons of food is wasted at consumer-facing businesses, with shoppers tossing out an additional 30 million tons of food each year.
According to FMI - The Food Industry Association, the average supermarket stocks more than 31,000 items. To operate efficiently, it’s important to track how many of these items are actually sold and how many are wasted.
Highly perishables now make up 39% of grocery stores, and produce alone is nearly 24%. These items have a short lifespan and are ripe for waste if not purchased. And food waste is expensive: shrink costs retailers $52 billion annually.