The newest national numbers are striking: U.S. retailers generated about 3.98 million tons of unsold food in 2024. That works out to roughly 10,900 tons every day, or about 21.8 million pounds per day. But an important part of the article should explain that this is not the same as saying 21.8 million pounds of merchandise is available to salvage grocery stores each day. (ReFED)
Here’s the blog post written around that distinction.
How Much Salvage Food Is Available Every Day in America?
When people first discover salvage grocery stores, one of the most common questions is:
Where does all of this food come from—and is there really enough of it to support an entire industry?
The answer becomes much clearer when you look at the enormous amount of food moving through the American grocery system every day.
According to ReFED’s most recent national estimates, U.S. retailers generated approximately 3.98 million tons of surplus food in 2024.
Put that into daily terms and the number is remarkable:
About 10,900 Tons of Retail Food Goes Unsold Every Day
That is approximately:
21.8 million pounds of food per day
or nearly:
8 billion pounds over the course of a year.
And that is only the retail sector.
It doesn’t include all of the surplus generated by food manufacturers, processors, farms, restaurants, consumers, and other parts of the food system.
Across the entire United States food system, ReFED estimates approximately 70 million tons of surplus food were generated in 2024.
That is roughly:
191,800 tons per day
or approximately:
383 million pounds of surplus food every single day.
Those numbers demonstrate just how enormous America’s food distribution system really is.
But there is an important distinction to understand:
Surplus food is not automatically salvage grocery merchandise.
What Does “Surplus Food” Actually Mean?
When researchers discuss surplus food, they are talking about food that ultimately goes unsold or unused.
That food can end up in many different places.
Some may be:
- Donated to food banks
- Diverted to animal feed
- Composting
- Processed through anaerobic digestion
- Repurposed into other products
- Discarded
- Sent to landfill
- Sold through secondary markets
- Liquidated
- Reclaimed
- Discounted
- Redirected through other recovery channels
So when we say that nearly 21.8 million pounds of retail food goes unsold on an average day, we are not saying that 21.8 million pounds is sitting in warehouses waiting for salvage grocery stores to purchase it.
Much of it would never be appropriate for resale.
But even a relatively small percentage entering secondary commercial channels represents an enormous amount of merchandise.
Why Does So Much Food Become Surplus?
A modern grocery store operates differently from most other retail businesses.
A hardware store might carry a hammer for months or even years before selling it.
A grocery store doesn’t have that luxury.
Food has dates.
Produce deteriorates.
Packaging gets damaged.
Products are discontinued.
Seasonal merchandise becomes obsolete.
Manufacturers change packaging.
Stores change product assortments.
Warehouses receive damaged cases.
Retailers order too much.
Customers don’t buy as much as expected.
All of these events continuously push products out of the normal grocery supply chain.
And because America’s grocery industry is so enormous, even a very small percentage of surplus creates a massive secondary stream of merchandise.
Nearly $27 Billion Worth of Retail Food Went Unsold
The issue isn’t simply measured in pounds.
ReFED estimates that the 3.98 million tons of surplus retail food generated in 2024 represented approximately $26.9 billion in lost retail sales value.
The national unsold-food rate was approximately 2.9%.
In other words, for every 100 pounds flowing through the retail food system, only a relatively small percentage goes unsold.
But when you’re dealing with a national grocery industry moving extraordinary quantities of food, a few percentage points becomes millions of tons.
Imagine What 10,900 Tons Per Day Actually Looks Like
Statistics measured in millions of tons can be difficult to visualize.
Consider a tractor-trailer carrying approximately 40,000 pounds of merchandise.
If 21.8 million pounds of retail food becomes surplus during an average day, that amount of weight would be equivalent to roughly:
545 Fully Loaded 40,000-Pound Tractor-Trailers
Every day.
Again, that does not mean 545 truckloads of commercially resalable salvage groceries become available every morning.
It is simply a way of understanding the scale of retail surplus.
But it also helps explain why an extensive network has developed to deal with products that leave traditional distribution.
Where Does All This Product Come From?
A grocery product can become surplus at numerous points.
Consider something as ordinary as a case of canned soup.
The manufacturer may produce more than its customer ultimately needs.
A distributor may cancel an order.
A warehouse may discontinue the item.
The manufacturer may introduce new packaging.
A pallet may be damaged while being moved through a distribution center.
The retailer may discontinue the flavor.
A seasonal promotion may end.
A grocery chain may change suppliers.
The cans themselves could remain perfectly usable even though the merchandise no longer fits into the conventional distribution system.
That merchandise has to go somewhere.
And this is where the secondary grocery market begins to become interesting.
Not All Salvage Food Is Damaged Food
Many consumers hear the word salvage and immediately picture dented cans.
Dented cans are certainly associated with traditional “bent-and-dent” grocery stores, but physical damage is only one source of secondary-market merchandise.
Salvage and discount retailers may encounter merchandise generated because of:
Overproduction
A manufacturer produces more product than ultimately sells through its normal customers.
Packaging Changes
A company redesigns a label or box and needs to clear remaining inventory bearing the old design.
Discontinued Products
A flavor, size, package configuration, or entire product line is eliminated.
Seasonal Inventory
Holiday merchandise becomes significantly harder to sell after the holiday has passed.
Short-Dated Inventory
Products approaching date-label milestones may be removed from normal distribution.
Warehouse Overstock
A distributor simply has more inventory than it needs.
Retail Reclamation
Merchandise removed from stores can move through specialized reclamation systems for evaluation and disposition.
Freight or Case Damage
A shipping case or pallet may be damaged even though some individual products remain unaffected.
Retail Closeouts
Chains regularly discontinue products, change assortments, close locations, or reset departments.
Each circumstance can create secondary merchandise.
What Types of Food Become Surplus?
Retail surplus isn’t limited to canned goods.
ReFED’s 2024 figures indicate that major categories of retail surplus included:
Produce — 33.1%
Fresh Meat & Seafood — 13.6%
Dry Goods — 11.6%
Dairy & Eggs — 11%
Other categories contribute as well.
This is particularly important when discussing salvage grocery stores because not every category works equally well in a secondary retail environment.
Fresh produce and refrigerated products have extremely different storage, transportation, inspection, and shelf-life requirements compared with shelf-stable products.
Dry Grocery Merchandise Is Particularly Interesting
For the traditional salvage grocery business, shelf-stable dry grocery merchandise can be especially important.
This may include products such as:
- Canned vegetables
- Canned fruit
- Soups
- Pasta
- Rice
- Cereal
- Crackers
- Cookies
- Baking products
- Condiments
- Sauces
- Snacks
- Shelf-stable beverages
- Candy
- Coffee
- Tea
ReFED estimates dry goods represented approximately 11.6% of retail surplus in 2024.
If that percentage is applied to the 3.98 million tons of retail surplus, it represents roughly 462,000 tons of dry goods annually.
That works out to approximately:
1,265 Tons of Surplus Dry Goods Per Day
or about:
2.5 Million Pounds Per Day
That calculation illustrates the potential scale of the category.
But once again, it should not be interpreted as 2.5 million pounds of inventory available for purchase by salvage retailers.
Some products are unsuitable for resale. Some are donated. Some remain within retailer-controlled recovery systems. Some are recycled or otherwise diverted. Some may never leave the organization that generated them.
Still, the scale is substantial.
The Grocery Reclamation System
One of the least understood parts of grocery retail is reclamation.
Large grocery organizations may have systems for collecting merchandise that has been removed from stores.
Rather than every individual store determining what to do with every product, merchandise may be consolidated and transported to a reclamation facility or handled through another centralized process.
Products may then be sorted according to their condition and potential disposition.
Depending upon the retailer, manufacturer agreements, product condition, regulatory requirements, and other factors, merchandise can take very different paths.
Some may qualify for manufacturer credit.
Some may be donated.
Some may be destroyed.
Some may be recycled.
Some may potentially enter secondary channels.
The exact process varies considerably among retailers and reclamation programs.
Manufacturers Generate Surplus Too
Looking only at supermarkets actually understates the size of the secondary food opportunity.
Before products ever arrive at the grocery store, enormous quantities of food move through:
Food manufacturers
Processors
Packaging facilities
Warehouses
Distributors
Importers
Brokers
Distribution centers
A manufacturer might be producing millions of units of a product.
Imagine that production exceeds demand by just 1%.
At small scale, 1% sounds insignificant.
At industrial scale, it can represent pallets—or truckloads—of merchandise.
The manufacturer then has a choice.
Continue paying to warehouse the merchandise.
Find another customer.
Discount it.
Donate it.
Repurpose it.
Liquidate it.
Or dispose of it.
That is one of the economic forces behind liquidation markets.
America’s Overall Surplus Food Stream Is Enormous
The broader numbers are even larger.
ReFED estimates that approximately 70 million tons of surplus food existed across the U.S. food system in 2024, representing about 29% of the total U.S. food supply.
That doesn’t mean 29% of America’s food could simply be placed into salvage grocery stores.
The figure includes many completely different types and sources of surplus.
But it demonstrates something important:
Surplus isn’t an unusual accident in the food industry.
It is a recurring consequence of operating one of the largest and most complicated food production and distribution systems in the world.
Products are constantly being produced, shipped, stocked, discontinued, replaced, returned, discounted, donated, redirected, and discarded.
That flow occurs every day.
Why Can’t All of This Food Simply Be Resold?
This is another reasonable question.
If so much surplus exists, why not simply put all of it into discount grocery stores?
Because the situation is much more complicated.
Some merchandise may be unsafe.
Some has experienced temperature abuse.
Some is spoiled.
Some has compromised packaging.
Some is subject to a recall.
Some cannot economically be transported.
Some fresh products deteriorate too quickly.
Some products belong to manufacturers under reclamation agreements.
Some are designated for donation.
Some are sent to animal feed or industrial uses.
Some products cost more to recover, sort, transport, and resell than they are worth.
And some merchandise simply isn’t commercially desirable.
The challenge isn’t merely finding surplus.
The challenge is identifying usable, legal, safe, economically viable merchandise within the much larger surplus stream.
Date Labels Play a Surprisingly Large Role
One particularly interesting reason food becomes surplus is product dating.
ReFED estimates that concerns surrounding date labels contributed to approximately 1.82 million tons—45.8%—of retail surplus food in 2024.
Consumers commonly encounter phrases such as:
Best By
Best If Used By
Sell By
Use By
These phrases do not necessarily all have the same meaning.
Product dating is therefore an important subject for consumers, retailers, food banks, and salvage operators alike.
Confusion surrounding dates can contribute to food being removed from the conventional supply chain even when circumstances surrounding the product may be more nuanced than simply “expired.”
Food safety, applicable regulations, manufacturer guidance, product type, package condition, and storage history still matter.
What Happens to the Food That Doesn’t Sell?
There isn’t one destination.
Retail surplus is divided among numerous recovery and disposal channels.
One important destination is charitable food recovery.
ReFED reports that retailers donated about 21.5% of their surplus food in 2024, a higher donation share than any other food-system sector.
Other material goes through waste-management systems, recycling, animal-feed channels, composting, anaerobic digestion, and landfill disposal.
Some commercial merchandise may also move through secondary markets.
This is why the amount of surplus food generated and the amount of salvage inventory available for purchase are very different figures.
There Is No National “Salvage Food Available Today” Number
This may be the most important takeaway.
There is no central warehouse containing America’s salvage food.
And there is no government database saying:
“Today there are 3,428 truckloads available to salvage grocery stores.”
The marketplace is fragmented.
Inventory can originate with thousands of:
Manufacturers
Retailers
Warehouses
Distribution centers
Reclamation operations
Wholesalers
Liquidators
Brokers
Food distributors
Importers
And other organizations.
Some deals involve a few cases.
Others involve several pallets.
Others involve complete truckloads.
And occasionally, very large quantities of a single product suddenly become available.
Salvage Inventory Is a Flow, Not a Fixed Supply
Perhaps the best way to understand salvage food is to stop thinking about it as a giant warehouse of unwanted groceries.
Think of it as a continuous flow.
Every morning factories manufacture more food.
Trucks deliver more products.
Warehouses receive more inventory.
Supermarkets stock more shelves.
Customers buy products.
Retailers change assortments.
Packages get damaged.
Orders are canceled.
Products approach their dates.
Seasonal programs end.
Manufacturers introduce new packaging.
And another wave of merchandise enters the secondary system.
Tomorrow the process happens again.
And again the day after that.
This is why the salvage grocery industry can exist continuously rather than simply selling off a limited pile of unwanted food.
The Numbers in Perspective
Using the latest available national retail figures:
Annual U.S. retail surplus food:
Approximately 3.98 million tons
Average per month:
Approximately 332,000 tons
Average per week:
Approximately 76,500 tons
Average per day:
Approximately 10,900 tons
Average per hour:
Approximately 454 tons
That means, on average, during the time it takes to read this article, thousands of additional pounds of food have entered America’s enormous surplus stream.
Again, these numbers describe surplus food, not inventory guaranteed to be suitable or available for commercial salvage resale.
That distinction matters.
The Bigger Story Isn’t That America Runs Out of Food
The surprising lesson from studying salvage groceries is almost the opposite.
America’s food supply chain produces and distributes food on such an enormous scale that even small inefficiencies create tremendous quantities of surplus.
The challenge is connecting usable products with people who can use them before their remaining value disappears.
Food banks solve part of that problem.
Discounting solves part of it.
Donation programs solve part of it.
Secondary markets solve part of it.
Salvage grocery stores represent another piece of that system.
And despite all of those channels, enormous quantities of food still never get eaten.
More Than 10,000 Tons Every Day
If there is one number worth remembering, it may be this one:
Approximately 10,900 tons of food goes unsold in the U.S. retail sector during an average day.
That’s around 21.8 million pounds.
Not all of it can—or should—be resold.
Not all of it is “salvage food.”
And only a portion will ever reach the commercial secondary market.
But the number illustrates why salvage food isn’t simply a handful of dented cans sitting in the back room of a supermarket.
It is part of a much larger story about how America produces, distributes, sells, recovers, redirects, donates, and sometimes wastes an extraordinary amount of food every single day.
The strongest SEO angle for the page is probably “How Much Food Goes Unsold Every Day in America?”, while retaining salvage food throughout the article. The 10,900 tons / 21.8 million pounds per day figure gives us an excellent headline statistic without incorrectly claiming all of it is commercially available salvage. ReFED’s latest data also puts total U.S. surplus food at 70 million tons in 2024, about 29% of the food supply. (ReFED)
