Tons Diversion Potential

Definition:

The Diversion Potential of a solution is the amount of food surplus that ReFED estimates a particular

solution could avoid if fully implemented along with other ReFED-proposed solutions. It is applied only to

the portions of food surplus that are considered addressable by that solution. For a solution that applies

only to foodservice kitchens, for instance, the diversion rate would only be applied to back-of-house

surplus, not to surplus that is plate waste or that occurs in other sectors.

Master Diversion Potential Equation:

Solution Diversion Potential = Addressable Surplus * Solution Diversion Rate

In ReFED’s data model, the following calculations are repeated for every sector, cause, food type, and

state before any aggregation is done

Table 1. Calculations Performed to Estimate Diversion Potential of U.S. Food Waste Solutions

DATA ITEM	DATA SOURCE OR CALCULATION	EXAMPLE
Tons Addressable Surplus	Food Waste Monitor, Solutions Database Modeling	According to the Food Waste Monitor, there were 3,345 tons of surplus Prepared Foods in the Limited Service Restaurants Mexican Foodservice sector due to Catering Overproduction in Florida in 2021. After subtracting the amount of this Catering Overproduction that ReFED estimates could be addressed by higher priority solutions (e.g., Prevention solutions), ReFED estimates that there would be 2,564 tons of Prepared Foods Catering Overproduction in the Florida Limited Service Restaurants Mexican Foodservice sector left for the solution ‘Donation Storage Handling & Capacity’ to address.
Solution Diversion Rate	Multiple data sources (See Appendix G for the Solution Diversion Rate data sources for each solution)	ReFED assumed that ‘Donation Storage Handling & Capacity’ could reduce the amount of food that goes uneaten due to Foodservice Catering Overproduction by 3.64%.
Annual Solution Diversion Potential	= Tons Addressable Surplus * Solution Diversion Rate	= 2,564 tons addressable surplus * 3.64% diversion = 93.35 tons of Prepared Foods Catering Overproduction could be prevented in the Florida Limited Service Restaurants Mexican Foodservice sector annually if ‘Donation Storage Handling & Capacity’ was fully implemented. Reminder: This example calculation is not the total diversion potential for the solution. These calculations were repeated for every sector, cause, food type, and state before aggregating and summing the total diversion potential for each solution.