Many of us are guilty of tossing out uneaten food. By using the U.S. Department of Agriculture's survey of more than 4,000 households on food purchases, researchers at Pennsylvania State University calculated that Americans waste nearly a third of all the food they purchase. In a University release, researcher Edward Jaenicke said the food waste statistics showed more than two-thirds of households waste between 20% and 50% of purchased food and even the least wasteful household threw out 8.