How many pounds of cheese does the average American eat per year?

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Cifra · Accepted Answer

42 pounds. Per-capita cheese availability is about 42 pounds a year, roughly triple the 1970s figure and still climbing. Mozzarella overtook cheddar as the most consumed variety, largely thanks to pizza. Note that "availability" slightly overstates eating, since it does not subtract waste. Work weekly and multiply. Think about cheese on sandwiches, in pasta, on pizza and as a snack — somewhere around a hundred grams a week for a typical person, or several pounds a month. Multiply by fifty-two and you land in the tens of pounds, which is the right range. The hidden cheese is what people underestimate, exactly as with eggs elsewhere on this site. Most consumption is not a slice eaten deliberately; it is cheese inside prepared food, and the explanation names the largest single driver: mozzarella overtook cheddar as the most consumed variety because of pizza. Per-capita food figures are dominated by ingredients rather than by choices. Note the measurement caveat, stated in the source itself: this is availability rather than consumption, so it includes waste and does not subtract what is thrown away. The same distinction appears in the global calorie question here, and it means every food availability figure slightly overstates what people actually eat.

Source	USDA Economic Research Service, Food Availability data
Figure refers to	2022
Last checked	September 1, 2026
Unit	pounds

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