List of countries by meat consumption


This is a list of countries by meat consumption. Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food.

Accuracy

The figures tabulated below do not represent per capita amounts of meat eaten by humans. Instead, they represent FAO figures for carcass mass availability, divided by population. The amount eaten by humans differs from carcass mass availability because the latter does not account for losses, which include bones, losses in retail and food service or home preparation , spoilage and "downstream" waste, and amounts consumed by pets. As an example of the difference, for 2002, when the FAO figure for US per capita meat consumption was, the USDA estimate of US per capita loss-adjusted meat consumption was. Additionally, the 2002 FAO study was potentially misleading for countries with high levels of meat export compared to their population, as it relied on production data using full carcass mass availability, whereas exports generally contain less bones, cartilage and other things not typically used for human consumption. For example, the FAO figure for Denmark, which has one of the highest meat export rates compared to its population, was . More recent FAO figures have taken the earlier discrepancy into account, resulting in a significantly lower for Denmark. When further adjusted for loss, calculations by DTU Fødevareinstituttet suggest the actual consumption was per adult.

Meat consumption by country