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Food Recovery Committee (FRC) Report

At the 2018 biennial meeting a Food Recovery Committee was formed to address the unresolved questions related to the practice of food donations posed during the Council I debate on issue 2018-1-24. The Conference charges included reviewing current practices and guidance and determining if a modification of the FDA Food Code was needed for food donation as an allowed practice.

Specifically, the charges were:

1.Evaluate existing materials including the AFDO guidance, Comprehensive Resource for Food Recovery Programs, and any other relevant guidance and documents pertaining to donated food; update the CFP guidance as needed; and evaluate opportunities to better disseminate existing guidance.

2. Identify best practices for handling, storage, and labeling of food for donation.

3. Examine existing state regulations that address food safety procedures for donation.

4. Recommend any necessary language changes to the FDA Food Code to ensure the safety of donated food.

5. Report back to the 2020 Biennial Meeting.

Food donation is a safe practice that can reduce food waste and provide food assistance to those in need. The confusion that surrounds what foods can be safely donated and which sections of the Food Code apply to food donation can be addressed by providing easy-to-use guidance for food donations and modifying the FDA Food Code by adding a definition and sections acknowledging the practice.

The need for food assistance is documented by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). On September 4, 2019, the USDA released its annual study measuring food security entitled Household Food Security in the United States in 2018. This report is based on data from the December 2018 food security supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS), that provides the most recent statistics on the food security of U.S. households, including how much households spent on food, and the extent to which food-insecure households participated in federal programs.

Key findings in the 2018 study report:

• 37.2 million (11.5%) individuals lived in food-insecure households.

• 14.3 million (11.1%) households were food insecure.

• 5.6 million (4.3%) households had very low food security.

• 11.2 million (15.2%) children lived in food-insecure households.

• 2.9 million (7.5%) households with seniors were food insecure.

• 1.3 million (8.9%) households with seniors living alone were food insecure.

The exact number of organizations and food establishments that donate food to food banks and food pantries for distribution to those need is unknown. Feeding America is made up of 200 food banks that work alongside an estimated 60,000 partner agencies. An estimated 20,000 grocery stores donate food to Feeding America-affiliated food banks or their partner agencies. There are numerous other retailers outside of the Feeding America network that donate directly to local food banks and food pantries. The Feeding America network also includes nearly 5,000 food service establishments that donate food to local food recovery operations; there are assumed to be many other food service donations happening outside of the Feeding America network. https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/research/hunger-in-america/hia-2014-executive-summary.pdf

Food Donation Connection reports on their website, "In 2017, an estimated 1,400 business entities through 19,300+ foodservice locations (restaurants, airports, travel plazas, retailers, hotels, universities, hospitals, distribution centers) donated 50 million pounds of prepared surplus food to 11,000 hunger relief organizations."

Food donation supports the reduction of food waste. In the United States, an estimated 30-40 percent of the food supply is wasted. The USDA's Economic Research Service estimates that 31 percent of food loss occurs at the retail and consumer levels; a percentage that corresponds to approximately 133 billion pounds of wasted food each year, worth nearly $161 billion in 2010. https://foodwastealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/FWRA_BSR_Tier3_FINAL.pdf This amount of food and economic waste has far-reaching impacts on society. Wholesome food that could have helped feed families in need is sent to landfills. Land, water, labor, energy and other inputs are used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, storing, and disposing of discarded food.

For food donation to be accomplished in a manner that provides safe food to those in need, this practice must be conducted under the same conditions as food offered for sale. It must come from commercial suppliers under regulatory control. Home kitchens, with their varieties of food and open entry to humans and pet animals, are frequently implicated in the microbial contamination of food and are not acceptable sources of donated food. Controlled processing and post processing handling are required for the safe distribution of donated food.

The Conference recommends acknowledgment of the 2018-I-24 Food Recovery (FR) Committee Report, with thanks to the members of the Committee for their work and dissolution of the FR committee.