The Council of Ministers approved this Monday the preliminary draft of Food Loss and Waste Prevention Law, regulations designed to reduce the waste of uneaten food that ends up in the garbage and thus encourage better use of them.
With this new rule, it will also try to force stores to encourage the sale of “ugly, imperfect or unaesthetic” products that they are in optimal consumption conditions, as well as to encourage the sale of local, organic and bulk foods, explained the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
And it is that in 2020 Spanish households threw away 1,364 million kilos of food, at an average of 31 kilos per person. “40% of all food is wasted in its transformation in industry; 5% in distribution; 40% in homes, and 15% in the Horeca channel (hospitality)”, he stressed Flat.
With this law, the first on the matter in Spain, but which already exists in other European countries, the Executive ratifies its commitment to compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, which expressly include the aspiration of halving per capita food waste.
Planas has pointed out that combating waste is an “ethical” imperativeBecause food waste harms society as a whole by making access to basic necessities more expensive, wastes scarce natural resources, increasing waste and environmental impact, and undermines the efficiency of the productive sector and its competitiveness.
Measures to prevent food from ending up in the trash
The Food Loss and Waste Prevention bill consists of 15 articles, four final provisions and an additional one, and as Planas has insisted, aims to establish a model of good practices to avoid food waste with actions throughout the food chain, from the producer to the consumer.
To do this, Planas stressed, a “hierarchy of priorities” to avoid “food and drink ending up in the trash.”
Thus, the law establishes as a first priority that food can be objects of donation to non-profit organizations and food banks.
For the donation of food, the food industries, commercial establishments and hotels and restaurants must subscribe agreements with recipient organizations in which the collection, storage and transport conditions and the selection of food must be specifically collected, among other aspects.
The donated food must have sufficient shelf life to enable its safe distribution and use to its final recipients.
In the second order of hierarchy, foods not sold but that are in optimal conditions of consumption must be transformed (juices, jam, etc.).
And the third priority will be that the food be used as by-products for animal feed, to obtain compost or biogas when they are not fit for human consumption.
The Law against Food Waste will encourage donations for human consumption – Watch now
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Products with expiration date
According to the minister, another of the axes of the new law refers to the expiration date and the date of preferential consumption. On the expiration date, Planas has recalled that it is regulated “by law”, but on the date of preferential consumption, products with this expired date must be presented to the consumer separately and clearly differentiated from the rest, with lower prices, or to be used as a donation.
Hospitality and other food service establishments will have to offer its customers the possibility of taking, at no additional cost, what they have not consumed and they will have to report it visibly, preferably on the letter or menu. For this, they must have suitable reusable containers.
Institutions such as health and educational centers or residences that offer catering or dining services, either with their own means or that of others, must also have loss prevention and reduction programs and food waste that also comply with the hierarchy of priorities established by law.
The standard provides that food distribution companies must encourage, together with the administrations, the sale of products with a preferred consumption or expiration date.
Likewise they must encourage the sale of seasonal, local, organic food and environmentally sustainable and in bulk, and improve information on the use of them.
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Interminesterial strategic plan
For the planning of the policy for the prevention and reduction of food losses and waste, the Government shall develop a Strategic Plan at the proposal of the Ministries of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda; of consumption; of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge; of Industry, Commerce and Tourism; of Social Inclusion and Migration and Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
This plan will define the general strategy against food waste and the guidelines and structure that must follow the autonomous communities in their actions in this area. The bread will be reviewed every four years.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, after consultation with the other ministries mentioned, must prepare a National Loss Control Plan and food waste that will contain the general objectives and priorities to be followed and that will be integrated into the Strategic Plan.
The law also imposes on public administrations the mandatory to carry out informative campaigns and promotion to encourage the responsible consumption of food and promote the prevention and reduction of food losses and waste, as well as the development of good practice guides aimed at improving food management.
In addition, a sanctioning regime is established with four types of infractions serious, all related to the donation of food, which can be punished with fines of between 6,001 and 150,000 euros.
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