Rising grocery prices appear to be leading consumers to dramatically cut down on food waste to protect their wallets.
This shift is a key finding in a national study released by the food waste nonprofit ReFED, “American Households in 2026: Grocery Spending, Behavior Change and Food Waste Reduction.” In partnership with YouGov, ReFED conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,000 U.S. households to explore how the financial realities of grocery shopping are altering habits at home.
The research shows that consumers are responding to high food prices by making multiple small changes in their food shopping, preparation and management behaviors that are designed to get more value out of the food they purchase — similar to the “waste not, want not” habits of older generations, according to ReFED.
Making multiple small changes — including cutting back on non-essentials; checking what they already have at home before shopping; cooking and eating at home more often; and using leftovers more — rather than any single change on its own increased the probability of reporting less waste (8 to 11 percentage points, depending on whether spending had risen or fallen).
“Over the last two years, more and more consumers, and the media they read, have started to connect that reducing food waste in the home is one way to cope with high food prices and extend your food dollars,” says Marigold Walkins, director of research for ReFED. “Now we have recent data that backs up that connection, and more importantly, helps us understand how to magnify those behaviors and increase food waste reduction.”
Budget Strains and Habit Stacking
The study found that over two-thirds of households reported a shift in their annual grocery budgets, with 58% experiencing a budget increase — with 93% of those households blaming rising food prices for the spike. The median weekly grocery bill has climbed to approximately $150, forcing affected families to absorb an average increase of $50 per week.
High food prices are affecting consumers in different ways, ReFED shows; some are spending more, while some can’t afford the higher prices and are cutting back on what they buy. Households spending more on groceries were 29% more likely to report reduced waste than households with no change in grocery spending, and households spending less were 40% more likely. Among households that changed their grocery spending, those who attributed the change to food prices were 17% more likely to reduce food waste than those citing other reasons.
Faced with these tightening budgets, Americans are changing how they handle food, with 56% of respondents reporting that they actively waste less food than they did just a year ago. Interestingly, the survey highlighted that consumers are adopting different approaches depending on how their spending has shifted:
- For households spending less on groceries — Waste reduction was heavily driven by deliberate, targeted habits like meal planning and consistently using up leftovers.
- For households facing higher bills — Consumers are “stacking” a broader range of microbehaviors, such as checking what they have at home before shopping, hunting for sales, buying smaller packages and freezing food.
What ReFED Recommends Retailers Do
For food retailers, these shifting consumer habits represent a major business opportunity to align their strategies with the public’s heightened focus on value. Rather than appealing purely to environmental sustainability, ReFED recommends that businesses lean heavily into an affordability-first messaging strategy.
Specifically, the report suggests that food businesses and retailers focus on three main pathways:
- Use consumer and waste data to inform packaging and product decisions — For manufacturers, residential food waste should be a consideration in product development and packaging decisions, particularly where data shows that products commonly spoil before the package is finished. For retailers, waste considerations can inform assortment planning, promotions and replenishment decisions. In both cases, where evidence points to a mismatch between pack size and how households actually use a product, that evidence should inform packaging, price and promotion decisions.
- Support behaviors most strongly linked to reducing food waste in homes — There is an opportunity for food businesses, including retailers, to reinforce leftover use and meal planning by offering tools, recipes, resealable and freezer-ready packaging and on-pack storage guidance, positioned as practical ways to get more value from every grocery trip.
- Sell recoverable surplus at affordable prices, then donate what remains — There is an opportunity for retailers and manufacturers to capture more demand for surplus food before it exits the retail channel by selling suitable products to consumers at lower prices through in-store markdowns, discounted near-expiration sections or partnerships with food recovery platforms. This approach addresses both food waste and affordability simultaneously and is particularly relevant for lower-income households who face the greatest burden from rising grocery prices but have the most to gain from practical support that stretches their grocery budget further.
