A new study published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics on behalf of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association found that many formal measurements of food waste are "inconsistent" and might be overstated.

The study's authors cite the deficiencies and discrepancies of four different definitions of food waste: those from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), E.U. Fusions, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In the study, the authors simplify the definition of food waste to "the difference between the amount of food produced and the sum of all food employed in any kind of productive use, whether it is food or nonfood." In using this definition they found that food waste measurements are overstated under the parameters of the other definitions.