Make A Plan! Thanksgiving Food Waste Starts Way Sooner Than You Think

‘Tis the season for a reminder that one of the biggest food waste days of the year is approaching: Thanksgiving.

This year, new research¹ conducted in partnership with NielsenIQ (NIQ) shows how certain behavior patterns among Thanksgiving hosts and guests can lead to so much food waste in the first place. And what we identified are common behaviors that extend food waste well beyond Thanksgiving day itself—underscoring the importance of starting to plan now.

According to the survey, 42% of Thanksgiving hosts this year say they discard food while clearing out the fridge or pantry ahead of the holiday, and 36% clear out the freezer. This aligns with wider research that demonstrates that 19% of holiday cooks generate substantial waste making room for Thanksgiving provisions.

When it comes to the holiday itself, 89% of those hosting a Thanksgiving meal report intentionally preparing more food than needed—about a third (34%) to make sure there’s enough food for everyone and another third (36%) because they want to have leftovers.

Unfortunately, all that hard work goes out the window when even some of the most-loved leftovers of the year end up in the trash. Thirty-one percent of those hosting or attending said they end up discarding fresh Thanksgiving leftovers within a week, or later. Only 23% say they turn to the freezer as a way of extending the life of leftovers.

Taken together, this paints a picture of a multi-week period when tens of millions of Americans are throwing out food to make space, overpreparing for a holiday feast, and then tossing what’s left over. And as the cost of food remains elevated, all that waste means dollars thrown in the trash. Fortunately, it’s early enough that Thanksgiving hosts and guests can do something about it!

So as we look ahead to the coming weeks:

• Take stock before making room: Before clearing space for Thanksgiving, take stock of what’s in the fridge, pantry, and freezer to see what you can eat or repurpose into new meals, and freeze whatever you can. Consider donating any excess, packaged, and shelf-stable ingredients you come across.

• Do your best to right-size your meal: Predicting how much food to make can be hard, especially with so many dishes and a lot of different appetite levels. Use a tool like “The Guest-imator” from Save the Food to estimate how much food you need to keep your guests full and happy.

• Make a plan for leftovers: Have to-go containers or freezer bags for guests to take home excess food on Thanksgiving Day, and the ingredients on hand to make your favorite leftover meals in the days after. And don’t forget about the freezer—less than a quarter of Thanksgiving hosts and guests use it, but it’s a great way to extend the life of leftovers.

• Try to keep wasted food out of the landfill: Even with the best efforts, some food waste is likely. But there are many ways to keep that food out of the landfill, whether through a community or municipal composting program, or using a backyard compost bin.

Check out our Consumer Food Waste page for five easy-to-adopt strategies to get the most out of the food you’re buying. And for the food waste news you need to know delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list.

¹ NIQ, BASES Economic & Thanksgiving Survey, September 2026, n=2017