Abstract Food loss and waste has become an increasingly discussed topic in recent years due to the associated economic and environmental burden. Knowledge and methodological gaps in quantifying food waste generation have been identified as the major obstacles in addressing the food waste generation issues by several researchers. Lack of standard methodology in quantifying food waste at households had led researchers to employ numerous methods that would generate incomparable results. Considering the absence of a critical and comprehensive review of food waste quantification methods, the current study aims at presenting a thorough literature review to compare household food waste quantification methods with special focus on methods addressing composition analysis. In this review, a total of 45 studies considering four main food waste (FW) quantification methods, namely surveys, kitchen diaries, waste audits and estimates based on secondary data are reviewed in detail to compare the strengths and limitations of each method. The need for standardized methodologies for household food waste quantification is further emphasized.