Abstract: Reducing food waste is important to ensure national grain security and to promote environmental protection. Accurately assessing food waste levels and analyzing food waste characteristics are prerequisites for the government to formulate food waste reduction-related measures. Based on a survey data of 1 479 rural households in 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China, this paper assesses the level of food waste in China's rural households, analyzes the characteristics of food waste in terms of the general situation and regional differences, and evaluates the impacts of food waste on resources and environment. Results show that the proportion of food waste in China's rural households is 2.70% and shows a trend of gradual increase from morning to night. Among the food categories, staple food is wasted relatively more and meat is wasted relatively less. Each household wastes 2.54 percent of flour products, 3.60 percent of rice products, 1.47 percent of pork, and only 0.75 percent of beef and lamb. There are significant differences in food waste in rural households by region. Food waste in the southeast coastal area is relatively serious with a waste ratio of 3.21%. Geographic environment and eating habits have significant regional differences in rural household food waste with high waste of flour products in the north and high waste of rice and fishery products in the south. The study also shows that rural food waste greatly influences resources and the environment. The total waste and cash loss due to rural household food waste are 3.12 million tons and 18.04 billion yuan per year, respectively, generating 9.75 million tons of carbon dioxide and 6.11 billion cubic meters of water resources. Therefore, this paper suggests that the government should strengthen the awareness of food saving, improve storage conditions, promote healthy eating culture, and establish a comprehensive kitchen waste disposal system.