Anaerobic mesophilic batch tests of food waste and food waste leachate collected from food waste treatment facility were carried out to evaluate their ultimate biodegradability and two distinctive decay rate coefficients (k1 and k2) with their corresponding degradable substrate fractions (S1 and S2), respectively. Each 3 liter batch reactor was operated for more than 60 days at substrate to inoculum ratio (S/I) of 0.5 as an initial total volatile solids (TVS) mass basis. Result of Ultimate biodegradability of 74 ~ 83% for food waste and 85 ~ 90% for food waste leachate were obtained respectively. The readily biodegradable fraction of 85 ~ 93% (S1) of food waste Biodegradable Volatile Solids (BVS, So) degraded within the initial 15 days with a range of of 0.151 ~ 0.168 day−1, whereas the rest slowly biodegradable fraction (S2) of BVS degraded for more than 53 days with the long term batch decay rate coefficients of 0.009 ~ 0.010 day−1. For the food waste leachate, the readily biodegradable portion (S1) appeared to be 92 ~ 94% of BVS (So), which degrades with of 0.172 ~ 0.206 day−1 for an initial 15 days. Its corresponding long term batch decay rate coefficients were 0.005 ~ 0.009 day−1. It is recommended that the hydraulic retention times of mesophilic anaerobic digesters be 16 days for the food waste and 15 days for the food waste leachate, respectively. However a safety factor should be considered when designing a full scale plant.