BOB DOUGHTY: The report said the most wasted foods were dairy products, eggs, fats, grains and oils. Among the least wasted were dry beans, fish, lentils, meat, poultry, peanuts, peas and tree nuts.

Last year, a report in the journal PLoS One considered the environmental effects of wasting food. Scientists from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases measured the energy content of America’s wasted food. They found that American waste of food per person has risen by about fifty percent since nineteen seventy-four.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson, Caty Weaver and June Simms, who was also our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.