Food waste is sickening. The amount of safe and nutritious food that is wasted each year in the United States is astonishing: An estimated聽40 percent聽of the U.S. food supply is never consumed. Yet, approximately聽49 million Americans are suffering from hunger. Instead of using this excess food to feed the hungry, most of this food waste ends up in the trash. This sight is nauseating 鈥� billions of pounds of food rotting in U.S. landfills while approximately聽one in seven Americans are food insecure.
Food safety concerns are some of the many factors that contribute to the large amount of food waste in the U.S. There is a widespread misconception that聽some food products cannot or should not be recovered due to food safety concerns. This has resulted in businesses throwing out food that is still perfectly good and safe to eat. For example, a large number of food products are thrown into landfills that are mislabeled, even though they are still safe for human consumption. Some of this food could be diverted from the landfill by simply聽relabeling the product to declare an ingredient originally omitted. Other product labels may create a false sense of concern that the product is no longer safe. A new, clearer label could prevent food from going to waste.
To address these concerns, the U.S. Department of Agriculture鈥檚 Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced two new policies in 2016 to help businesses and consumers reduce food waste. The first policy action was the issuance of聽FSIS Directive 7020.1, which created a new and simpler relabeling process for businesses that want to donate food products that have minor labeling errors. The other step taken by FSIS was the issuance of a聽new guidance document 聽that suggests manufacturers use standard and consistent language for date labels to reduce consumer confusion and food waste that is a result of this confusion. These new policies apply to all聽meat, poultry, and some egg products聽in the U.S.
FSIS Directive 7020.1 makes the relabeling process easier for businesses who want to donate recalled products. Prior to this new policy, food products regulated by FSIS had to follow a聽re-approval labeling process before the product could be donated. In addition, that product had to be plainly marked 鈥淣ot for Sale.鈥� Businesses were discovering approval could take anywhere from 60-90 days, resulting in a lengthy process, which took up a large amount of storage space.聽 The re-labeling application process required time and labor. It was also costly for businesses to pay their employees to re-label and stamp 鈥淣ot for Sale鈥� on each product. Overall, the costs of donating the products were not feasible for businesses.
Now, under FSIS Directive 7020.1, businesses can donate certain mislabeled products without worrying about the costs associated with the re-labeling process. Under聽the directive, economically adulterated or misbranded meat and poultry products can be donated 鈥渁s is鈥� without applying for temporary label approval and without adding the 鈥淣ot for Sale鈥� statement on each package. The only requirement is that there is a bill of lading that describes the quantity and description of the donated item, the reason the product was recalled, and a statement that the product is not for sale, which accompanies the donated product. However, the temporary label approval and 鈥淣ot for Sale鈥� package statement are still both required if the product is misbranded because it did not include an ingredient of聽public health concern: Wheat, fish and shellfish, eggs, peanuts, dairy, tree nuts, or soybeans or 鈥淸i]ngredients that may cause food intolerance, such as sulfur-based preservatives (sulfites), lactose, Yellow 5 (tartrazine), gluten, and monosodium glutamate (MSG).鈥澛� Also, the donated product is still required to be聽inspected by officials before it is shipped to the nonprofit organization.
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