What Happens To Leftover Krispy Kreme Doughnuts?

The Krispy Kreme conveyor belt's seemingly endless stream of fresh, glazed doughnuts makes it clear the chain produces an incredible quantity every day. But what happens to those that are still uneaten when the store closes? Even if you agree that doughnuts taste best fresh (which is one of the reasons why Krispy Kreme doughnuts taste so good), you'd probably rather see the day-old treats get eaten rather than tossed in the trash. One untold truth of Krispy Kreme is that what happens to leftover doughnuts actually depends on where the store is located.

On the company's U.K. website, its FAQ section clearly explains what happens to the unsold doughnuts at the end of the day: "At the majority of our sites any unsold or unacceptable quality doughnuts are recycled by Leafield Feeds Ltd to be used as a component of animal feed. 25% of our company food waste is sent for Anaerobic Digestion and converted into bio-fuel and overall 94% of our food waste is diverted from landfill." On top of this, U.K. Krispy Kremes also use a tool that plans customer demand to reduce food waste.

The FAQ section on the U.S. Krispy Kreme website, however, lacks any information related to food waste. The company's 2024 Responsibility Fact Sheet does state that it generated 29,499 tons of food waste that year but diverted 40% of it from the landfill. How it did so is unclear.

Krispy Kreme customers and employees on social media have provided insight into what happens to the chain's leftover doughnuts. In a 2026 TikTok video posted by user @nateinamdar, they show a Fremont, California dumpster completely filled with doughnuts right outside of the store. While some Krispy Kreme flavors are better than others (we should know — we've ranked them from worst to best), none deserve to end up in the garbage.

Over on Reddit, one Krispy Kreme employee shared a photo of several garbage bags full of glazed doughnuts, titled, "Average shifts worth of food waste at Krispy Kreme. Every. Day." Naturally, customers in the comments were frustrated to see food go into the trash — understandable considering that 18.3 million American households experience food insecurity (according to 2024 USDA data).

Krispy Kreme's food waste system in the U.K. isn't perfect, either. In 2016, the BBC reported on an incident in Bristol, England in which a customer spotted a "mountain" of doughnuts outside of a Krispy Kreme in and around the dumpsters. He estimated the pile to contain approximately 15,000 of the chain's signature item. The Bristol location responded that it experienced a recycling issue during that particular weekend. This was a decade ago, so hopefully U.K. locations now actually practice what they preach. In the U.S., however, Krispy Kreme seemingly has a lot of catching up to do in implementing food waste guidelines.