Legislation Fighting Food Waste: New Bill Will Make it Easier for Corporations to Donate Directly to Those in Need
By Savannah Throneberry (1L)
In the words of Jacques Diouf, former Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, “hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.” Despite nearly 34 million people in the United States living in food insecure households in 2021, Americans waste nearly 40 million tons of food every year. The FDA paints a harrowing picture of just how wasteful this is. Imagine that you go to the grocery store and purchase three bags full of groceries, then immediately throw away one of those bags (“Tips to Reduce Food Waste”). Below is an illustration showing American food waste with strawberries (see fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Goldenberg, Suzanne. American Food Waste Reflected in Strawberries. The Guardian,1-25-2023.
To combat the dire disparity between hunger and waste, a bipartisan bill was unanimously passed in the Senate and passed by voice vote in the House. On January 5, 2023, it was signed into action by President Biden. The bill expands and updates the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which was signed into action by Bill Cinton in 1996. The Food Donation Improvement Act, introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, aims at relieving legal barriers of liability for corporations to incentivize donating excess food rather than throwing it away. Wholesalers and companies will now be able to directly donate to individuals without fear of being subject to civil or criminal liability arising from “the nature, age, packaging, or condition” of foods donated (S.328 – 117th Congress).
Many companies have joined together to back this bill including GrubHub, Hellmann’s, and WW (formally Weight Watchers). In total, 73 companies, 58 representatives, and over 60,000 votes were garnered to back this cause. In the past, companies were hesitant to donate food, fearing it to be past its expiration date which could cause someone to be sick. This fear resulted in most corporations wasting perfectly good food. In fact, many individuals throw away food on a regular basis due to a misunderstanding about how expiration labels work. Around 20 percent of food waste is a result of the misunderstanding that stems from expiration labels.
Wasting food is also extremely harmful as it substantially impacts global warming. Producing food emits methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons into the environment which contributes to global warming. The World Wildlife Federation estimates that “the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Fear not, there is a way that everyone can contribute to being less wasteful. According to the FDA, the little label we see on food that says “Best If Used By” is not exact science and in fact is not to mean that the food is “bad” past that date, instead it indicates that the food is at optimal quality up until that day. Food continues to be safe to consume past the “best if used by date,” there are a few ways to tell. One is to inspect the food for changes in coloration or smell; another alternative is to use apps on the market that let you know how long you can keep perishable food. One of these apps is the FoodKeeper App, which helps to inform on ways to maximize the freshness and quality of food.
Here are a few tips on how to maximize food freshness:
- Refrigerate fruits and vegetables after peeling/cutting them;
- Freeze foods to preserve their life;
- You can even freeze or refrigerate bread to make it last longer;
- Cut up and store fruits and vegetables that are starting to go bad in the freezer, you can use them in smoothies
- Don’t buy what you don’t need, especially when it comes to dairy products; and
- Follow the 2 hour rule: when it comes to perishable food, don’t leave it out of the fridge or freezer for more than two hours to prevent the item from going bad.
Producing more food won’t resolve hunger. We need to make conscious efforts to use already available resources to feed those in need rather than be wasteful. The Food Donation Improvement Act is a step towards more equitable distribution of food to combat hunger, a basic need of all people.
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