World’s largest cruise company reduced food waste per person by 44% over the last five years,

surpassing its 2025 40% target vs 2019 one year ahead of schedule

Reductions represent $250 million in cost avoidance since 2019

 Carnival Corporation , the world’s largest cruise company,  announced it achieved a 44% reduction in unit food waste in 2024 compared to 2019 levels, surpassing its 2025 40% reduction target a full year ahead of schedule and is well on its way toward its 50% reduction goal set for 2030.

The significant reductions are a result of the company’s ongoing “Less Left Over” food management strategy focused on its world-class cruise lines finding smart ways to ensure food and ingredients don’t go to waste. Since 2019, the company has avoided over $250 million in food costs by finetuning its provisioning, preparation and meal service practices to further enhance the dining experience for its almost 13.5 million annual guests and to reduce the amount of uneaten food globally in its operations.

“Our Less Left Over strategy is powered by dozens of large and small programs and technologies across our cruise lines to cut food waste by 50% by 2030,” said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation. “But more than that, it’s also a global rallying cry that is turning everyday actions into lasting impact by nurturing a shared mindset among our 160,000 talented team members – a mindset that values creativity in delivering amazing meals for our guests and crew while getting the most out of our resources. It’s great for the planet and our bottom line.”

Optimizing Every Delicious Bite

Carnival Corporation’s success in reducing food waste stems from its holistic approach to addressing every step of the food lifecycle onboard its ships and in its land operations, from sourcing to prep to dining services. This includes:

• Using real-time analytics, intelligent systems and data driven insights for purposeful ingredient purchasing, dynamic menu planning, and prep-to-plate operational precision.
• Leveraging AI-powered systems and real-time data tracking to align food prep with live guest and crew meal service flows and dining patterns.
• Emphasizing food and meal plating techniques that showcase the company’s culinary creativity while enhancing visual presentation and minimizing waste.
• Training our crew and empowering them with the knowledge and confidence to inspire ownership and action in reducing food waste and loss across every aspect of the operation.
• Serving ‘just right’ portions so guests enjoy a satisfying meal that fills the plate with the option to come back for a second helping.
• Pioneering solutions like donating surplus ingredients and meals to a growing network of food banks in communities facing food scarcity, which is continuing to scale significantly for the benefit of our destination partners.

While the goal is less food left over to discard, just like eating at home there will always be food and food preparation items remaining after your meal. In those cases, Carnival Corporation takes a circular economy approach to find meaningful ways of creating productive value from any remaining food materials by transforming what might have been waste into useful resources. One of the many ways the company is maximizing the usable life of the food products is to repurpose food scraps into new products – from upcycling used coffee grounds to produce vegan soap products to converting used cooking oil into biofuel for its land-based tour bus operations in Alaska.

Tackling Leftovers with Technology

When leftovers cannot be repurposed into other resources, Carnival Corporation still finds ways to ensure there is ‘less left over’ by investing in innovative waste management technologies and systems to minimize the impact of the small amount of unused food scraps that remain. Going well beyond regulatory requirements, these combined technologies substantially limit the impact from conventional food waste disposal methods, such as landfills, while contributing to even more sustainable and efficient operations.

For example, one way the company treats and manages left-over food onboard is with its over 630 biodigesters installed fleetwide as of the end of 2024. These “metallic stomachs” use natural bacteria to organically break down and liquify uneaten food to a tiny fraction of its original volume. Carnival Corporation also relies on over 90 dehydrators and dryers installed across the fleet to remove excess water from hard-to-break-down food items, such as fruit rinds, shrinking the remaining hard waste volume by approximately 90%. The dried material can then be ground down into an organic pulp for possible use as organic mulch and compost or offloaded.