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Meat Consumption Data Overview

Consumption data for meat and other animal-sourced foods can help in evaluating:
 Overall trends in the size and impacts of the factory farming system.
Health concerns, e.g., how does consumption match up to nutrition research or USDA guidelines.
Comparisons to other countries and the respective impacts on the global environment.
 Strategy and messaging for environmental and animal advocates.
Trends in sub-populations, e.g., by sex, age, or ethnicity.

Reported figures for U.S. per capita meat consumption vary widely, depending on the source of the data and the methodologies used to compile it.[1]

USDA – The USDA provides a range of per capita figures from carcass weight (at the slaughterhouse) to retail weight (including bones) to boneless retail weight.[2] Through 2019, the USDA also estimated several loss-adjusted weights that deducted inedible portions, cooking losses, and the amounts that likely ended up in waste bins.[3]

When referring to USDA carcass weights, per capita consumption will appear much higher than retail weights or any of the various loss-adjusted weights, which are closer to actual consumption. The USDA defines carcass weight as the weight of the product at the slaughter plant, after removal of most internal organs, head, and skin, and prior to losses in distribution and processing.[4,5] After adjusting for all losses, the per capita weight of red meat, for example, is about half the weight of carcass weight.

FAO – Adding to the potential confusion, many organizations and writers turn to FAO data which provides per capita estimates of consumption for most countries including the U.S. The FAO’s data for the U.S. closely aligns with the USDA’s carcass weight, though this is not always the case. While beef and pork align with carcass weights,[6] some of the FAO’s figure for poultry more closely align with the USDA’s retail weights, or the amounts available to consumers.[7]

The USDA has the most credible data for U.S. consumption. FAO data is valuable when comparing consumption rates between countries. Critically, neither the USDA nor the FAO currently offer estimates of actual consumption, though the data is sometimes presented as if it were just that.

 

  1. Fehrenbach, K. S., et al., (2016). A critical examination of the available data sources for estimating meat and protein consumption in the USA. Public Health Nutrition, 19(8), 1358–1367, p. 1361. [“Dietary intake and agricultural supply data are created using very different methodologies, making reconciling these large discrepancies a daunting task.”]
  2. Carcass weight and retail weight are shown in USDA ERS (updated 3/21/25) Livestock and Meat Domestic Data. All Supply and Disappearance – Meat supply and disappearance tables, recent. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-and-meat-domestic-data [Retail weight is “The weight of a product as it is sold at the retail level.”]
  3. Loss-adjusted weights are shown in USDA ERS (2024) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System. Loss-Adjusted Food Availability –  Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts  https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-availability-per-capita-data-system/ [“The consumer weight is the weight of the food before losses at the consumer level (for example, inedible share and other cooking loss and uneaten food) have been subtracted.”]
  4. USDA ERS (2024) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System, Food Availability Documentation – Estimating Supply and Use of Major Foods, Meat. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-availability-per-capita-data-system/food-availability-documentation [“For example, production data for meats are based on slaughter plant data; therefore, carcass weight is the primary weight for meats.”]
  5. USDA National Agricultural Library Thesaurus (NALT). [Defines carcass weight as “The weight of an animal after slaughter and removal of most internal organs, head and skin.”]
  6. FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture data, [Query; Food balances/U.S./Food Supply quantity (kg/capita/yr)/Bovine Meat/2016-2022 (Example: FAO per capita Beef consumption in 2022 = 83.8 lbs.)] and see, Livestock and Meat Domestic Data [Example: Beef “carcass weight” consumption in 2022 = 84.2 lbs., whereas “retail” weight was 58.9 lbs.]
  7. FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture data, [Query; Food balances/U.S./Food Supply quantity (kg/capita/yr)/Poultry/2016-2022) [Example: FAO per capita consumption in 2021 = 118 lbs. USDA’s poultry “retail weight” in 2021 = 113.3 lbs. USDA’s “carcass weight” = 129.2 lbs.]

The major USDA source is Livestock Meat and Domestic Data: All supply and disappearance.[1]

These tables report total production figures and “per capita disappearance” figures for meat, poultry, and eggs. The annual per capita disappearance by pounds is broken out into three categories:[2]
 Carcass weight.
 Retail weight.
 Boneless retail weight.

 

  1. USDA ERS (updated 3/21/25) Livestock and Meat Domestic Data — All Supply and Disappearance — Meat supply and disappearance tables, recent. 
  2. USDA ERS (updated 3/21/25) Livestock and Meat Domestic Data – All Supply and Disappearance –  Meat supply and disappearance tables, recent. [For example: Table 1, 2024 Per Capita Disappearance for Beef – Carcass weight = 84.4 lbs.; Retail weight = 59.1 lbs.; Boneless retail weight = 56.5 lbs.]

We suggest that the USDA’s retail weights from the supply and disappearance data sets are the most pertinent.[1] Of the 3 disappearance categories, “carcass weight,” “retail weight,” and “boneless retail weight,” the USDA usually presents retail weight as “a proxy measure for consumption.”[2,3] Many informed journalists, data sites, and industry websites follow the USDA’s lead.[4-6]

It should be noted that using boneless retail weights intuitively makes more sense, most obviously because it is closer to what is actually eaten. The USDA confuses the issue by interchanging the words “consumption,” “availability” and “disappearance,” even within a single report.[7] Additionally, some USDA charts use boneless retail weights under the term “availability” (though not “consumption.”)[8] And in its explanation of methodologies, the USDA states that  “These boneless-weight estimates serve as a proxy for consumption and are mainly used to make comparisons of quantities of meat types consumed.”[9] However, boneless retail weights are generally not the figures that the USDA presents as “proxies for consumption” from year to year.

Therefore, we suggest that retail weights (including bones) are most pertinent,[10] even though the USDA acknowledges that they are not reflective of what is actually eaten since they don’t account for pet food and food waste.[11]

 

  1. USDA ERS (updated 3/21/25) Livestock and Meat Domestic Data – All Supply and Disappearance.  Meat supply and disappearance tables, recent.
  2. USDA ERS (March 15, 2022) Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: 2022, LDP-M-333, p. 1. [“USDA calculates per capita meat disappearance—a proxy measure of consumption—as a residual measure of supply (the sum of production, beginning stocks, and imports minus the sum of exports and ending stocks) divided by the total U.S. population.”]
  3. USDA ERS (February 18, 2025) Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: February 2025, LDP-M-368, p. 1. [Chart uses retail weights]
  4. Kenny Torella (Nov. 21, 2024) Americans are eating less meat. And more meat. How? Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/386374/grocery-store-meat-purchasing
  5. Statista (2025) Per capita consumption of poultry meat in the United States from 2010 to 2024, by type.
  6. National Chicken Council (2025) – Per Capita Consumption of Poultry and Livestock, 1960 to Forecast 2025, in Pounds. https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/statistic/per-capita-consumption-poultry/
  7. USDA ERS (February 18, 2025) Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: February 2025 , LDP-M-368, p. 1.
  8. USDA ERS (February 2024) Selected charts from Ag and Food Statistics, Charting the Essentials 2024, p. 21.
  9. USDA ERS (Updated 1/10/25) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System – Food Availability Documentation. See, Boneless Red Meat, Poultry, and Fish.
  10. Note: we surmise that the USDA deems the retail weights more significant since they are not dependent on the somewhat arbitrary percentage calculations applied to reach “boneless” based on broad estimates of the weights of bones and inedible fats by meat type that are subtracted from retail weights.
  11. USDA ERS (March 15, 2022) Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: 2022, LDP-M-333, p. 1. [“However, since it does not account for indirect consumer uses such as pet food and food waste, it overestimates the actual consumer consumption.”]

Figures for food loss are inherently imprecise, requiring detailed estimates at various points in distribution channels, with the largest losses based on consumer surveys of at-home activities, which are notoriously unreliable.[1] In 2018, the USDA convened a body of experts in an effort to refine their food loss methodologies.[2] It appears that they abandoned the effort after reporting the 2019 loss-adjusted figures.[3,4]

Through 2019, these loss-adjusted tables estimated actual per capita consumption by weight for meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy. They accounted for various levels of loss in processing, trimming, shrinkage, and in the home due to cooking and food waste. These dated loss-adjusted figures can potentially be used to estimate losses in recent years by applying the same percentages of loss the USDA used up to 2019, though food-loss shares may be changing.[5]

 

  1. USDA ERS (Updated 1/10/25) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System – Food Availability Documentation. [“This second series is considered preliminary because the underlying food loss assumptions and estimates require further improvement.”]
  2. Muth, M. K., et al., (2018). Expert panel on technical questions and data gaps for the ERS loss-adjusted food availability (LAFA) data series.
  3. USDA ERS (2024) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System. Loss-Adjusted Food Availability. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and nuts. [Meat and eggs loss-adjusted figures were reported through 2019. Dairy loss-adjusted figures were continued through 2021.]
  4. Caballero, S. V., et al., (2025). Results of Informal Discussions and Semistructured Interviews on Estimating Retail-Level Loss Factors for the Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) Data Series (No. 349206). USDA ERS. [“…there is insufficient information to recommend that ERS move forward with a nationally representative study on retail food loss at this time.”]
  5. For further info on food loss see, Animal-sourced Food Waste

We use the USDA per capita data for retail weight from Livestock and Meat Domestic Data, as noted under “per capita disappearance.”[1] This is the weight of total product available to the consumer for purchase at retail. In this data series, retail weight for meat includes bone and separable fat.[2] These figures are often quoted by analysts of U.S. consumption and are used regularly in the USDA’s monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook reports as a “proxy” for per capita consumption.[3]

We also offer a loss-adjusted figure as a broad estimate of actual consumption. Prior to the discontinuation of loss-adjusted figures by the USDA, one group of analysts pointed to these figures as “better estimates” of true consumption.[4] These USDA calculations estimated losses throughout all distribution channels, and we use their admittedly dated and unconfirmed shares of loss, including home cooking and food waste. This is likely the best estimate of food actually eaten, and when compared to retail weight shows how much of the product is wasted. These shares of loss – different for each type of meat – are reported through 2019 in the Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System.[5]

 

  1. USDA ERS (updated 3/21/25) Livestock and Meat Domestic Data. All Supply and Disappearance, Meat supply and disappearance tables, recent. [Retail weight is “The weight of a product as it is sold at the retail level.”]
  2. USDA ERS (2024) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System, Food Availability Documentation, See Meat section.
  3. See for example: USDA ERS (March 15, 2022) Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: 2022, LDP-M-333,  p. 1. [“USDA calculates per capita meat disappearance—a proxy measure of consumption—as a residual measure of supply (the sum of production, beginning stocks, and imports minus the sum of exports and ending stocks) divided by the total U.S. population.”]
  4. Fehrenbach, K. S., et al., (2016). A critical examination of the available data sources for estimating meat and protein consumption in the USA. Public Health Nutrition, 19(8), 1358–1367, p. 1365. [“Unfortunately, there are no data sources that provide a flawless estimate of average US per capita consumption of meat and protein-rich foods. However, loss-adjusted agricultural supply data and dietary recall data provide better estimates than unadjusted agricultural supply data.”] 
  5. USDA ERS (2024) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System. Loss-Adjusted Food Availability.

The FAO presents food and agricultural data on more than 245 countries.[1] FAO consumption data is useful when comparing U.S. per capita rates to other countries or to global figures. Naturally the accuracy of the FAO figures, “ultimately depends on the quality of the data provided by each country, which may have been produced using different methods and assumptions. Still, this level of data permits sufficient international comparisons and has been widely referenced in reports produced by FAO and other global organizations.”[2]

Given the USDA’s unique access to production figures, USDA data should be considered the most credible, unless international comparisons are key.

 

  1. FAO. 2024. World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2024. Rome, p. ix. [“The freely accessible FAOSTAT data platform contains the largest statistical database on food and agriculture in the world, with approximately 20 000 indicators covering more than 245 countries and territories, and around 2 million views each year.”]
  2. Fehrenbach, K. S., et al., (2016). A critical examination of the available data sources for estimating meat and protein consumption in the USA. Public Health Nutrition, 19(8), 1358–1367, p. 1364.

The CDC collects data on health through its National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of about 5,000 adults and children, which includes a dietary survey.[1] However, the survey data has significant limitations. Response rates have been declining.[2] And since dietary surveys can be unreliable, it may not be an accurate indicator of overall consumption, thus the data has limitations for assessing trends over time. It does, however, offer some perspective on meat, poultry, egg, and dairy consumption by race/ethnicity, sex, and age.[3,4]

Some independent reports use NHANES data to analyze consumption by population segments. For instance, using data from 2015-2018, analysts found that 12% of beef consumers accounted for 50% of the total beef consumed and that those consumers were predominantly male.[5]

 

  1. CDC (2024) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, About NHANES. [“USDA relies on the diet and nutrition information that NHANES gathers to help determine what Americans are eating.”]
    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about/index.html
  2. Williams, Anne, et al., (March 2025) What We Eat in America Dietary Data, NHANES: August 2021-August 2023 24-Hour Dietary Recall Interview Mode Change, CDC, p. 7. [“The August 2021-August 2023 Day 1 interview unconditional response rate was 19.6%. In past cycles the unconditional response rate for the Day 1 interview ranged from 62.3% (2011-2012) to 42.8% (2017-2018).”]
  3. Fehrenbach, K. S., et al., (2016). A critical examination of the available data sources for estimating meat and protein consumption in the USA. Public Health Nutrition, 19(8), 1358–1367, p. 1364. [“Despite these limitations of self-report recall data, in a large nationally representative sample such as NHANES, a single 24 h recall should provide a useful, although likely under-reported, estimate of the average meat intake at the population level. In contrast to agricultural supply data, dietary intake data can be used to estimate consumption of sub-populations based on age, sex, ethnicity or other factors.” “NHANES data are also not as accessible for analysis of intake trends over time compared with the USDA food availability databases.”]
  4. USDA Food Surveys Research Group: Beltsville, MD, 2017-March 2020 Prepandemic – Food Patterns Equivalent Intakes from Food: Consumed per Individual. [“See, for example “race/ethnicity and age” breakdown of food consumption including various animal-sourced food categories.] https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/beltsville-md-bhnrc/beltsville-human-nutrition-research-center/food-surveys-research-group/docs/fped-data-tables/
  5. Willits-Smith, A., et al., (2023) Demographic and Socioeconomic Correlates of Disproportionate Beef Consumption among US Adults in an Age of Global Warming. Nutrients, 15, 3795, table 1.

Consumption Figures